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Sustainability must be job creation’s holy-grail

By Jackie Carroll

Employment has dominated the last few weeks’ headlines, with much accent having been placed on decent jobs, job creation and the proposed new labour legislation.

The problem is, one has to dig deep to discover any form of appreciation for the single solution to creating additional jobs on a long-term basis. Why is it that there has been so little attention devoted to the means by which we are able to create sustainablejobs?

Political expediency may boost employment numbers in the near term. But if those jobs are to be of no more than fleeting duration, we’re back to square one.

This is the reason why I was so pleasantly surprised by the National Budget, which, while it fell short of spelling out in so many words the critical need for sustainable employment, nevertheless tacitly recognised that sustainability is the only meaningful pot of gold at the end of the job rainbow.

There can be no job sustainability without education. Education is the foundation upon which the structure of employment has to be created. To forge the optimum economic infrastructure – one that it will endure for posterity, and prosperity – we must get the base right. For me, as well as – seemingly – the Finance Minister, that sustainable base is education.

Job creation has, correctly, evolved into South Africa’s social and economic mantra; one born of statistics that:

• 42% of South Africans between the ages of 18 and 29 are unemployed;
• 63% of young African women are unemployed; and
• 12,5% of South Africa’s youth have a job, compared with 40% in most emerging economies.

The destructive potential is awesome.

Accordingly, we are faced with little option but to fast track the answers. I suggest that the Minister’s 2011-12 Budget goes a long way toward achieving such a goal.

This is what he said: “Giving every South African the dignity of a job, the security of an income, the prospect of training, the support to launch new businesses, the confidence to be an entrepreneur, and the sheer passion and optimism to break the shackles of unemployment – is the best legacy this generation can leave for the next.”

Mr Gordhan has raised the starting bar by ensuring that education and employment creation is allocated the largest share – R146 billion – of government spending via money voted for schools infrastructure, teacher bursaries, colleges and teacher salaries.

The emphasis on education is hugely encouraging. My prayer is that it spent wisely, efficiently and promptly.

I have a reservation over the R73 billion earmarked for public works infrastructure employment generation. Traditionally, expenditure on public works is inefficient and the accompanying jobs unsustainable. Indeed, it has been estimated that the average job created by a government programme last no more than 46 days.

Another reservation stems from the Budget’s higher allocation to social grants, with the resultant danger of a welfare mentality. Better and well-directed education initiatives strive to drive the welfare psyche from the minds of our people; to encourage entrepreneurship and the establishment of new private sector businesses.   

Jackie Carroll is CEO of Media Works, a Johannesburg-based organisation that specialises in adult basic education and training.