MINISTER of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi has urged people to vaccinate as soon as they are able to. According to the minister, this will allow the economy to fully open and help boost the recovery process.
Nxesi was responding to the latest Stats SA Q2 Quarterly Labour Force Survey which shows a continued trend of jobs-shedding with figures showing that the official unemployment rate increased by 1.8 percentage points to 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2021 at 32.6%.
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According to Nxesi, the increase in the official unemployment rate was relatively expected because of the slow economic growth observed in the first quarter of 2021 and the decline in investment rate in the country.
“It should also be noted that the economy has also been severely affected by the necessary lockdown restrictions that have mostly affected non-essentials activities because of the pandemic.
“It is for this reason that we urge all the people in South Africa to make themselves available for vaccination so that the lockdown could be lifted once we reach the necessary herd immunity.
“We believe that this is one of the ways that this country can arrest the shedding of jobs,” he said.
He mentioned that according to Statistics South Africa, an additional 587 000 individuals have reported to be unemployed between quarter one and two of 2021.
However, the increase was more than 3.5 million individuals when compared to a year ago (April 2020).
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“The recent figures of vaccination show that the youth are coming out in big numbers to be inoculated. The youth is again leading from the front in securing their future with this commitment because ultimately, this will be a difference to whether the economy kickstarts or not. We appreciate their commitment and resolve,” said the minister.
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