Cabinet has noted the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) which shows an increase in the unemployment rate from 24.9% to 25.2%.

Briefing the media in Cape Town on Thursday, following this week’s Cabinet meeting, Acting Cabinet spokesperson, Phumla Williams, said Cabinet remained confident that measures already underway will assist the country in creating new jobs and realising its target of five million new jobs by 2020.

“Government is accelerating measures, such as the state-led infrastructure drive to increase employment through public sector interventions and to help the private sector to create more jobs,” Williams said.

Social Accord on Youth Employment

Cabinet also noted that the Social Accord on Youth Employment, launched by government in April, demonstrated a collective commitment towards addressing unemployment.

“It maps out individual sector pledges to contribute in fighting youth unemployment with concrete targets and time frames for successful execution, monitoring and collective evaluation of the identified interventions,” Williams noted.

The multibillion rand pact, signed by government, labour, business and other civil society representatives in April, commits in particular to improve education and training opportunities for the group that is between school-leaving and first employment.

Farming community (De Doorns)

On agriculture, Cabinet welcomed the commitment by all parties involved to working toward sustainable solutions to the problems affecting the farming community, particularly in the Western Cape.

This follows the visit by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to De Doorns in the Western Cape last weekend, accompanied by leaders of the three spheres of government.

The visit and dialogue with stakeholders including farmworkers, stems from Motlanthe’s initial visit on 12 February 2013.

“Solid progress was noted from a number of departments in improving services in the area, and the commitment demonstrated by all parties lays a solid foundation for on-going engagement toward a sustainable agrarian sector,” Williams said.