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75,000 South Africans have lost their jobs in the last quarter. Our economy is simply not performing optimally.

South Africa’s unemployment rate is now at 25.2%, up from 23.9% in the last quarter of 2011. Figures released this morning show that there are now 4.5 million South Africans who are unemployed, notwithstanding those who have given up looking for work.

At a structural level, many of the jobs created in the last year are in non-productive capacities such as the public service. Government employment is not the kind of work that creates sustainable momentum in an economy.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has a clear plan to address unemployment: Implement the youth wage subsidy, cut red tape, reform the labour market to be more labour-absorptive, hold teachers accountable to non-performance and incentivise increased investment in our economy.

But the Department of Labour has essentially ignored these constructive proposals. Instead, it has chosen to propose a set of labour amendment bills that will likely do even more damage to employment opportunity. These new bills will further restrict our labour market by placing additional regulations on temporary work – making it even more expensive to hire new workers.

Government must decide between appeasing COSATU and actually serving South Africans. The DA will continue to apply all the pressure we can to ensure the latter.