Statistic South Africa’s (Stats SA) latest unemployment rate report shows that it rose from 29,1% to 30,1% in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. 

As the released Stats SA report indicates:

“South Africa’s unemployment rate increase by 1,0 percentage point to 30,1% in Q1:2020 compared to Q4:2019. The unemployment rate usually increases between Q4 and Q1 each year.”

This means that an estimated 16,4 million of the labour force can not find work in SA’s current economic climate.

Unemployment has gotten worse with the imposed nationwide lockdowns in March 2020 triggered by coronavirus, the disease that causes the Covid-19 pandemic.

The corosive impact of the epidemic on economic activities worldwide has inflicted unimaginable harm on the millions of citizens and crashed their livihoods in its invisible path. 

The poor and developing countries are bearing the ultimate brunt of the virus across the world. In South Africa, the plight of the unemployed and their prospects of getting a job at the moment are diminishing with every rising coronavirus statistic.

SA President Cyril Ramaphosa recently said that the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest disruption and will cause the deepest recession since World War II.

As the country returns all men and women to work, it will take time to redeem what has been lost since government’s mandatory restrictions began in March. A peep on the expanded definition of unemployment pulverizes even the faintest of hope.

For now though, the new normal under the life threatening clutches of Covid-19 will be a slow economic activity. Meanwhile, optimism is pinned on the virus abating and eventually biting the dust or snuff itself out of terrorizing the global populace.