The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) notes with deep concern the latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) for the first quarter of 2025, released today by Statistics South Africa. While the figures paint a bleak picture of a shrinking labour market, they come as no surprise. They confirm once again that the South African economy is in a deep structural crisis—one that cannot be overcome without a decisive break from neoliberal policy orthodoxy and a new agenda focused on redistribution, industrialisation, and democratic planning.
The QES shows that total employment fell by 74,000 jobs quarter-on-quarter, from 10,653,000 in December 2024 to 10,579,000 in March 2025. Sectors hardest hit include:
- Trade: -52,000
- Community Services: -17,000
- Mining: -4,000
- Business Services: -1,000
- Construction: -1,000
- Electricity: -1,000
While manufacturing registered a small increase of 2,000 jobs, the sector is still down by 95,000 jobs year-on-year between March 2024 and March 2025. Full-time employment declined by 55,000 jobs quarter-on-quarter, while part-time employment fell by 19,000.
This continued erosion of jobs comes on top of a deep and persistent unemployment crisis. 12.7 million working-age people are unemployed, 80% of them for more than a year.
Even those in precarious and informal jobs are not spared. The QES shows that part-time employment declined by 55,000 year-on-year, highlighting the extent of job losses even among those already surviving on the margins.
These figures expose, once again, the failure of South Africa’s neoliberal economic model. The country remains trapped in a colonial, extractivist pattern—exporting raw materials while importing finished goods. Since the adoption of GEAR in 1996, this model has devastated domestic manufacturing, flooded our markets with imports, and turned the working class into passive consumers instead of productive participants in the economy.
The myth that private capital—especially foreign direct investment—will lead the economy to recovery has failed spectacularly. In the first quarter of 2025, GDP grew by just 0.1%, narrowly avoiding recession. Meanwhile, private corporations are sitting on an estimated R1.7 trillion in unused reserves, refusing to invest in production or jobs.
This investment strike by private capital is compounded by the collapse of public sector investment. The result is a catastrophic failure to expand economic capacity, build infrastructure, or reindustrialise the economy.
According to verified data:
- Private sector fixed investment is only 10.8% of GDP
- Public sector investment adds a mere 4.3% of GDP
- Total Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) is thus around 15% of GDP
To reach the 6% annual GDP growth rate necessary to meaningfully reduce unemployment, South Africa must raise total investment to over 30% of GDP. Instead, both public and private investment remain at barely half that level.
And yet, even the limited productive infrastructure that already exists is criminally underutilised. According to the Reserve Bank and recent surveys by industry bodies, manufacturing capacity utilisation hovers between 77% and 79%, meaning up to a quarter of available production capacity lies idle.
This is not due to a lack of ability or labour—it is due to disinvestment, load-shedding, collapsing logistics (ports, rail, roads), cheap imports, and a policy vacuum that discourages localisation and reindustrialisation. In other words, factories stand half-empty while millions are jobless.
There has never been a coherent industrialisation strategy rooted in value addition, beneficiation, or economic diversification. Government after government has capitulated to the logic of market liberalisation and multinational control. Domestic markets have been opened to cheap imports, local industries destroyed, and critical sectors surrendered to foreign capital.
The consequences are clear:
- Mass unemployment
- Extreme inequality
- Collapsing public services
- Under-resourced schools and hospitals
- Crime, drug abuse, and gender-based violence
- Hopelessness among the youth and working class communities
The so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) offers no hope of change. Instead, it doubles down on neoliberal dogma through Operation Vulindlela and continued austerity. This policy framework is incapable of resolving the structural crises of unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
SAFTU calls on all workers, progressive trade unions, community movements and civil society organisations to unite and demand:
- A break with austerity and neoliberalism
- A mass public investment programme to rebuild infrastructure and reindustrialise
- The launch of a democratic public works programme
- Full use of existing manufacturing capacity and active import substitution
- A new economic model based on social ownership, redistribution, and worker control
- Urgent action to protect and create jobs, and end the investment strike by both private and public institutions
The working class cannot wait. We must fight for a new economy that puts people before profit.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For more details, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
066 168 2157
Newtonm@saftu.org.za
