SA to accelerate job creation
Edwin Tshivhidzo
21 February 2008While unemployment remains the greatest economic challenge facing South Africa, significant progress has been made in job creation, says Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.
Last year, it was reported that the number of jobs created by South African businesses increased by 7%, which according to labour experts represented a significant improvement from 2006 employment figures.
"Over the past decade, we have done much to reshape our economy and since 2002, there has been significant progress in job creation," Manuel said while presenting his 2008/09 Budget speech in Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday.
"Our response to the unemployment challenge needs to be better coordinated as this is at the centre of our war on poverty," he said, adding that efforts to increase the employment of young people have to be intensified and skills development better focused.
Manuel said options for a wage subsidy to contribute to employment creation were being examined. "Tax measures introduced in this Budget broaden the internship allowance to include longer term apprenticeships, targeted at technical skills," he added.
Regarding job creation, he said support for small businesses was also being looked at to encourage job creation.
"Business development is not a core responsibility of government, but where it contributes to broadening opportunities, to drawing the marginalised and excluded into the mainstream of economic activity, then it has a rightful claim on public support," he said.
Programmes under the umbrella of the government's expanded public works programme that have demonstrated the ability to create jobs have been allocated a further R1-billion over the financial year.
"Alongside job creation, [the] government's poverty reduction strategy also prioritises the social security net and extending the social wage, which includes services such as water, electricity, sanitation, education, health care and public transport," Manuel said.
Source: BuaNews
