More than 27% of South African

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – OCTOBER 5: Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant during a meeting at the Chamber of Mines on October 5, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Oliphant has called for stability to return to the platinum mining industry. (Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Mary-Ann Palmer)

More than 27% of South Africans now unemployed, highest number in 14 years

Another ‘good story to tell’?

More than 27% of South African

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – OCTOBER 5: Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant during a meeting at the Chamber of Mines on October 5, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Oliphant has called for stability to return to the platinum mining industry. (Photo by Gallo Images / Foto24 / Mary-Ann Palmer)

Statistician-general Pali Lehohla on Thursday released his Quarterly Labour Force Survey and, well… it’s not looking good folks. The report, based on the first quarter of 2017, shows an overall unemployment increase of 1.2%, bringing the rate to 27.7 % or 6.2 million people, an increase of 433 000.

Lehohla did add though that the sharp increase can, to a degree, be attributed to the swell in job-seekers entering the market at the beginning of each year.

Related: South Africa’s increasing unemployment comes down to Apartheid. Zuma

Fin24 reports that while the official unemployment rate is now sitting at 27.7%, the expanded unemployment rate – folks who want to work, but who haven’t got around to looking for a job yet – increased by 0.8% to 36.4%… a total of 9.3 million people who can, but aren’t currently working in SA in total.

While the ANC’s National Development Plan (NDP) is meant to be closing the employment gap, Lehohla said it’s actually widening.

“The NDP states unemployment should be 14% by 2020 and we have only two and a half years to that target. The gap to 2020 currently stands at 13.7 percentage points,” he said.

What is of more concern is that 58% of the additional 433 000 unemployed South Africans is young people.

“Unemployment remained high among those with an education level of less than matric at 33.1%, which is 5.4 percentage points higher than the national average.”

While Jacob Zuma’s government keeps politicking to the masses, the truth of the matter remains: you can’t promise jobs, before you’ve actually created them, and none of the ANC’s current policies have been able to create the jobs needed…

Related: Nelson Mandela Bay unemployment drops 2.2% in Q4 of 2016