[miningmx.com] – SOUTH Africa’s unemployment rate increased to 25.5% in the third quarter amid a slowdown in the economy fueled by power shortages and falling commodity prices.
The number of people out of work increased by 188,000 to 5.4 million, said Bloomberg News citing a statistics agency report. The median estimate of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for the unemployment rate to remain little changed at 25.1%.
South Africa is struggling to create enough jobs at the same time that sliding commodity prices force mining companies such as Anglo American Platinum to consider firing workers. Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene last week lowered his growth forecast for this year to 1.5% from 2%.
Manufacturing, which makes up about 13% of the economy, added 18,000 jobs, while employment in mining was unchanged, the statistics office said. Unemployment increased despite the rise in employment in most industries since more job-seekers entered the market, said Bloomberg News.
Click here to read the full article
