South Africa’s unemployment rate has gone up in the first quarter of 2019. Low pick up of construction and financial-services firms has led to the compression in the employment growth. The unemployment rate rose marginally from 27.1% in the quarter ended in December 2018 to 27.6% in the last quarter ended in March 2019, according to Statistics South Africa released recently. The unemployment rate in Africa’s economy has been over 20% since 2000. The sluggish economic growth has been a major concern for the second largest economy of Africa. Gross domestic product has been growing flat and did not exceed more than 2% a year since 2013. Economists are of the view that the GDP must grow by 3% to 5% annually to absorb the unemployed. Ramaphosa, who came victorious in the election that just concluded taking the African National Congress to a sixth straight election victory, pegged the growth at 5% a year. At least, that is what he promised at the campaign trail. All sectors excepting manufacturing, trade and transport registered a decline in employment. At 142,000, The construction industry lost 142,000 jobs while financial services had taken a hair cut of 94,000 positions.
