Bleak mining sector statistics are bad news

There was a feeling of “do you want to hear the good news first or start with the bad news?” about the latest employment figures released by Statistics South Africa.

The good news is that the unemployment rate has officially tagged at 26.5% in the fourth quarter of last year – down from 27% – and that 235 000 jobs were added to the active South African workforce over the same period – figures that run in the face of economic projections, which had earlier taken a contrary view.

The bad news is the mining industry – long one of the mainstays of this nation’s economy but a sector which has seen a net loss of R50 billion from 2014 to the first half of 2016.

And it lost 17 000 employees in the third and fourth quarters last year and 65 000 since the last quarter of 2015, a veritable bloodbath with more job loses indicated.

But all of us must remember that these are purely figures on a page and that behind these statistics – and no one blames the researchers for reporting the bald facts – are the lives of real people just trying to survive.

We badly need more good news.

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.