I Need a Job.

Over the past two years I have encountered many job-seeking students who are misled by the dropping unemployment rate. It is due to this drop that these students believe that they are the only skilled job-seekers who have not been assigned employment by an eager job market.

Earlier this year, Statistics South Africa (STATS SA) released a report claiming that the official unemployment rate had fallen from 26.4% to 25% in the previous three months.

In the same month I was told the story of Tshepo, who after three years of looking for employment as a Masters graduate, felt forced to accept a job as a domestic worker. “I studied up to the level of acquiring my Masters so I could be more marketable for potential employers, and years of looking under every plausible rock can deflate one’s perseverance.” Tshepo’s story is not unique; she is not a domestic worker by choice, and is actively still looking for employment in her field of study.

Nondumiso is also a university graduate who is lucky enough to be helping out at the family business while looking for employment. She has now been there for two years. She has days where she is demotivated to even search for employment. “The idea that I spent so many years at university and still cannot get employed makes me feel like I may have wasted my time”

In a country where so many are unemployed, the plight of unemployment is a powerful political tool and critically analysing the state of our progress is important.

Officially, a person (aged 15-64) is considered to be employed if during the week before being surveyed they worked for a wage, salary or commission or ran any kind of business by themselves or with other people. They will be categorised as “employed” even if they only worked for an hour in that week. Someone is considered to be unemployed if they capable of working or starting a business but had not done so. In addition they need to have actively looked for work or tried to start a business at some point in the four weeks preceding the survey.

The exclusive definition of unemployment has painted a rosy picture of our developing economy at the expense of the truly unemployed. Nondumiso and Thsepo’s story should be a cautionary tale for every university student gearing up to join the job market. There are numerous Nondumiso’s and Tshepo’s out there who are not validated by their university qualification.

The picture is obviously not all gloom and doom; there are plenty of students who are lucky enough to be recruited right after graduation and there is an active attempt by the South African Labour force to train and develop young graduates.