The official (narrow) unemployment rate in South Africa continues to float around the 25% mark, failing to respond to a handful of policy interventions introduced over the past decade. As part of perpetual experimentation and search for that elusive ‘silver bullet’, the South African government recently introduced the Jobs Fund and continues to mull over the idea of youth wage subsidies – which are vehemently opposed by trade unions. Both these programmes are part of an Active Labour Market Policy (AMLP) package that seeks to intervene temporarily in the labour market to help the unemployed, including the work-shy, to find work. The questions are how such policies should be implemented to be successful and whether the South African initiatives are properly designed (Rakabe 2012).

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Written by Eddie Rakabe, Researcher, Financial and Fiscal Commission

This article was first published on the Econ3x3 website – Accessible policy-relevant research and expert commentaries on unemployment and employment, income distribution and inclusive growth in South Africa.