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The quarterly labour force survey for the fourth quarter of 2011 indicates clearly that President Zuma failed to deliver on his promise to make 2011 the “year of the job”.

The numbers are in and the results are clear: More South Africans are unemployed now than when President Zuma first promised to make 2011 the year of the job in his State of the Nation address in February last year.

The number of unemployed South Africans has increased from 4.137 million to 4.244 million during the “year of the job”. That means that 107 000 more people are unemployed.

Another troubling statistic is that a further 165 000 South Africans have been unemployed for so long that they have given up on looking for work. These people have joined the ranks of 2.15 million people who were already too discouraged to look for work at the beginning of 2011.

This means that the number of people that are too discouraged to look for work has increased from 2.15 million people to 2.315 million people in 2011.

But the news is not all bad. The statistics indicate that some 365 000 jobs were created during 2011.

It is good that 365 000 South Africans have been given an opportunity to improve their lives, but unfortunately not enough jobs were created to compensate for the hundreds of thousands of young people who entered the work force for the first time this year. It is clear that job growth is not fast enough to absorb all the members of our growing workforce.

The President should do the right thing and consider some DA proposals in his state of the nation address this week.

It is clear that South Africa needs new economic policies to generate growth and job creation. The current approach has consistently failed, whilst the DA’s success in government has shown what works.

Approaches that the President should consider are:
a youth wage subsidy, which studies have shown can help create as many as 400 000 jobs;
helping small businesses with targeted tax cuts;
improving the investment climate;
redirecting wasteful expenditure towards productive programmes that spur growth and job creation.
We cannot continue plodding along with the same old failed approach whilst millions of people live in poverty without the hope of finding a job.