The latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) report for first quarter (Q1:2025) landed not as a routine economic release, but as a sharp and painful reminder of SA’s struggle with job creation.
A net loss of 74,000 jobs in just three months, followed by a year-on-year decline of 95,000 jobs, is a reflection of structural weakness, a faltering national strategy, and a crisis of opportunity for millions of South Africans. This is more than job losses. It is families losing security, communities losing hope, and a country gradually losing its capacity to harness its demographic potential.
The decline cuts across key economic sectors: trade shed 52,000 jobs, community services lost 17,000, and even mining, once the cornerstone of our industrial growth, retrenched another 4,000 workers.
The reality is that SA is grappling with a deep structural misalignment between the skills our workforce possesses and the demands of an evolving economy. Our education and training institutions are producing graduates for jobs that no longer exist while high-potential sectors such as digital technology, green energy, and advanced manufacturing continue to face shortages in qualified labour.
SA’s youth unemployment rate, as measured in Q1:2025, remains stubbornly above 40% and among the highest in the world. We cannot claim to be building a future-ready economy if the very generation that is meant to inherit it remains jobless and disengaged.
SA’s post-apartheid employment architecture was built on a foundation of equity, growth and transformation, but those ambitions have been repeatedly undermined by poor implementation, policy fragmentation, and weak institutional coordination.
For instance, Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), while well-intentioned, have largely failed to anticipate future labour market shifts. Their training output remains focused on static industries, instead of rapidly emerging sectors like artificial intelligence, fintech, data science, and green energy.