Current State of Domestic Markets Result in Jobs Lost

Hi all,

And welcome again to yet another blog post, today while paging through the newspaper I came across a rather upsetting piece of writing regarding the current state of the South African economy and more specifically a report that concerns the South African job market.

While I’m not one to spread doom and gloom, I felt it worth reporting to you the current state of our employment market given the current status of global and domestic markets.

In a newspaper article published in the Business Report of The Star today, according to South African economists and labour analysts, retrenchments are on the up and up for the 4^th and final quarter of the current financial year.

Mike Schussler, an economist at T-Sec, a South African stockbroker company, reported in the newspaper article that 74 000 jobs were lost in the 3^rd quarter of the current financial year and predicts even more to come in the 4^th quarter.

So far, approximately 20 000 jobs have been lost over the last 6 weeks, although, keeping in mind that this is as reported by major companies. Counting those jobs lost within smaller enterprises, this figure could more accurately be predicted at around 60 000 jobs lost over the past few weeks.

While the increased numbers of lost jobs is mainly being experienced in mining, manufacturing and motor industries, it is evident that the current lull in the South African economy, as well as other international industries is having a severe effect on job markets.

Despite efforts to boost employment, the South African unemployment rate remains at 23% and if predictions for 2009 are accurate things are set to stay stagnant through the upcoming year with growth rates estimated at a whopping round number of zero.

Those of us that are lucky enough to be employed should certainly be grateful for this blessing, especially around this time of year and the looming festive season just around the corner.

Be sure to keep productivity levels burning on the back-up thrusters, be the first one into the office in the morning and the last to leave at night, meet your deadlines and hug your boss at least once a day.

I will be sure to keep a look out for further reports regarding these worrying topics and hope to find more positive news in weeks to come.

Until then, peace out!

Namaste’

Jo Blog

joblog@jobs.co.za

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under General Jobs.co.za, JoBlog's Workplace, The Employment Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.