COSATU express shock at employment stats

By Nomava Nobumba
05 May 2010

The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions says it is horrified that unemployment is still surging upwards even when the country supposed to be emerging from a recession.

Spokesperson Patrick Craven says according to the statistics SA the official jobless rate rose from 24.3% of the labour force in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 25.2% in the first quarter of 2010.

Craven says but the situation of unemployment is even worse, including people who have stopped looking for work.

He says the number has swelled by 153 000 in the quarter.

“This has taken the unemployment rate up from 34.2% to 35.4% over the first three months of 2010.

The number of employed people has fallen by 171,000 - to 12.803 million, which means that 4.31 million workers are now unemployed,” Craven said.

Craven says the situation condemns those people to a life of misery and a daily struggle to survive.