The Acting Minister of Employment and Labour, Dr Blade Nzimande was addressing the Employer Engagement Session as part of the Jobs Fair and Service Delivery event held in Cape Town, today (14 March 2024).

“Today's service delivery event demonstrates that, if we come together, from National, Provincial, District and Municipality levels, we can achieve more as a collective in providing services to our people", Dr Nzimande said.

Nzimande reminded the gathering that youth unemployment is a major national challenge and needs urgent and coordinated responses from all of the stakeholders to address it. “I don't have to lecture you as employers on the high rate of crime that we are currently experiencing. The youth remain vulnerable in the labour market, it is a ticking time bomb and represents the greatest risk to social stability in South Africa", he said

Acting Minister said the mind-sets need to change, innovations need to be sought and collaborations strengthened to bring about a halt to the staggering unemployment amongst youth. He challenged business to form part of educational councils so as to give input into the training and skills required by their industries.

He told the meeting that the key to combating high unemployment among young people is forging stronger connections among employers, education providers, and youth themselves to build skills that lead to entry-level jobs in growth sectors. “We know today, that there is an urgent need for all potential workers to upgrade their skills and reskill, in the face of the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the changing nature of work, spurred by the growth of the platform economy.

According to Dr Nzimande, the education and training systems suffer from relatively high drop-out rates, low pass rates, and fail to address the challenge of high unemployment. “With the receipt of last year's matric results, I am very much concerned over the large number of young people that will be joining the labour market under the current conditions".

The Minister also encouraged business to register their job opportunities on the Employment Services of South Africa system database.

In closing, the Minister cheered all work-seekers to grab every available job opportunity and the career information that they were going to receive from the various stalls, and use it as a stepping stone to their desired career-path in this constrained jobs environment.

Meanwhile, Public Employment Services managed to register more than 2 800 work seekers on the Employment Services of South Africa systems database today. This, in addition to registrations that took place during the build up to the main event. The Jobs Fair will continue tomorrow at the same place and time.

For more information, contact:

Teboho Thejane

Departmental Spokesperson

082 697 0694

Teboho.Thejane@labour.gov.za

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Issued by: Department of Employment and Labour​

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