The Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) today, shows no real movement in the labour market. Unemployment has remained constant at 24.9% compared to 25.2% reported in the previous quarter.

What will it take for government to start taking our jobs crisis seriously? When is President Zuma going to cut through the policy paralysis that keeps so many South Africans out of work?

It is time for the President to make some bold decisions about the jobs crisis. His government can’t keep muddling through with no clear and unequivocal strategy to create jobs.

This weekend the DA released its Plan for Growth and Jobs. It sets out what is wrong with our economy and how we would fix it. If elected to national government, the DA would fast track economic growth and job creation by bringing marginalised South Africans into the productive economy.

Central to our vision is a state that provides an enabling environment for job creation by ensuring access to labour markets, credit and skills. Our plan will lower the barriers to entry in the labour market and enable millions of South Africans to become active contributing members of our economy.

Specific job creating policy proposals outlined in the plan include:

• Rolling-out a national Youth Wage Subsidy programme to reduce barriers and encourage job creation.
• introducing a comprehensive Vocational Training and Apprenticeship Programme that will help; address critical skills shortages and enhance the interface between training and employment;
• reforming NEDLAC so that it is not dominated by economic insiders, but rather works to promote economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction;
• expansion of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to help more people to access higher education and gain marketable skills;
• reforming the labour market to ensure an appropriate level of flexibility for permanent and non-permanent employees; and
• introducing an Opportunity Voucher for school leavers to help subsidise their education, guarantee a loan or provide seed capital for a start-up.

We challenge President Zuma to take a leaf out of our book. He needs to become as obsessed about job creation and poverty reduction as we are. If he does not, 6.7 million South Africans will remain unemployed and without hope.