South Africa faces the dual reality of being the biggest employer of labour in Africa, while simultaneously grappling with the highest rate of unemployment, and one of the highest in the world.
A breakdown of pan-African financial and business consulting firm Africap’s recent analysis of companies in Africa employing the most workers shows that South Africa dominates the rankings. Of the 30 companies featured among the continent’s top job creators, 22 are South African, accounting for 73 percent of the list.
Regardless, the number of unemployed people in the country rose to 32.7 percent in the first quarter of this year from 31.4 percent in the previous quarter, according to Statistics South Africa. This means that 8.14 million people have been thrown into the joblessness net.
While these figures may appear contradictory, industry experts argue that they reflect different layers of the labour market.
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