The unemployment rate in South Africa according to stats sa for the first quarter of 2022 is 34.5%. In plain language, the total number of persons who are unemployed in South Africa is over 7.9 million. The official unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 35.3% as recorded by statistics sa. This means from the last quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022 there was a slight decline.
Although this may be a drop in the unemployment rate, the reality for many South Africans is that they are still looking for jobs every single day. South Africa has one of the highest global unemployment rates.
Today we talk about how you can get up and do something about being unemployed. We will give you many ideas to make money online in South Africa. But before we do that, we would like to discuss the reality of unemployment and its causes.
According to statistics South Africa as of 2022:
1. 63.9% of the South African people between the ages 15 and 24 are unemployed
2. Graduates between the ages of 15 and 24 have an unemployment rate of 32.6%
3. 42.1% of the South African population between the ages 25 and 34 are unemployed
4. 4.7 million people in South Africa are unemployed (ages 15-34)
5. The unemployment rate of youth in South Africa is 47.8%
6. The United States of America has an unemployment rate of 3.6%
7. Russia has an unemployment rate of 4.1%
8. Europe has an unemployment rate of 6.8 %
9. China has an unemployment rate of 6.1%
10. Kenya has an unemployment rate of 7.2%
Just by looking at the comparison with other states, it’s clear South Africa’s unemployment rate is a disastrous situation worth addressing today. It’s no wonder the South African economy is barely surviving, and we are experiencing slow economic growth.
The poverty in South Africa is a clear reflection of this unemployment rate. Millions of South Africans who are part of the active population are barely getting by. The youth unemployment rate is crippling our economy.
With high job losses and low to non-existent job creation, we see the highest unemployment rate in South Africa.
With the inflation rate in South Africa and the world taking a turn for the worst, it’s no secret that the unemployment rate in South Africa will continue to increase. The private households will be the worst hit by the lack of jobs.
Dare we even mention the impact of COVID-19 and the level 5 lockdown implemented in South Africa on the economy and the unemployment rate.
What is unemployment?
This is when you are not employed or working but are above a certain age and are available for work. The unemployment rate can be defined as how many people are not working per percentage of the labour force.
I wish I could say that all unemployed people were tirelessly looking for employment but the stress and depression that comes with sending out your resume and reading those “we regret to inform you” emails can be draining. Not everyone has the strength and energy to wake up each morning and keep applying and seeking more opportunities.
Some say instead of looking for employment rather create opportunities for yourself.
But what opportunities do not require some form of resources to start?
How do you take your 3 or 4-year degree and turn it into a profitable business? How do you harness the skills you spent years learning in varsity and turn them into income? Is it possible to consider that maybe the sleepless nights you spend studying to get your degree do not mean you will land your dream job?
Unemployment affects your emotional, mental and financial well-being.
As Ernie J Zelinski put it: “Being unemployed is the true test of who you really are.”
The first day of looking for work and being on the job market is exciting and fun. You go through a couple of job posts and thoroughly read them then decide which ones suit you and which ones don’t. You only look at a post from your dream company and you never apply for intern positions or positions lower than what you believe you deserve.
Honestly, you are hopeful and excited and believe all companies will respond to you and you get to cherry-pick which one to work for.
You are even hopeful that due to your qualifications some companies may even go as far as to give you an offer without going through the interview stages because you are that good right?
This euphoria can last for a week and some people feel this way for up to a month of job hunting.
After a month your hope starts to waiver, and you begin to question how you submit your resume. At this stage, you are still confident that you have the skills and the qualifications. The only problem could be how your resume is structured.
You get online and hire a resume expert to make your resume look professional and stand out from the rest. Because you still believe you deserve all these jobs, it’s just a matter of your resume standing out. After improving the resume and getting your lecturer or previous employee to write you a glowing recommendation letter you are sure that now you have the winning recipe to blow this thing out of the water.
You can smell your next interview and your new job offer.
But still, everything is dead quiet.
No response, this time even the emails to let you know that another candidate was chosen stopped coming in. Now you are in the dark, you start wondering if your CV is even getting to the correct places.
Now you start applying for all and any jobs in your field. Even the ones that you initially believed were below your standard like researching in junior positions. After all, you are willing to start at the bottom and work your way up.
Months four and five are the tipping point. Now you begin to question your own skills and qualifications. You question your character and personality. Surely the problem has to be you. All your friends are getting jobs and buying cars.
Everything seems aligned even for the student who is barely qualified to be awarded that degree.
Why not you. What is wrong with you.
Life starts to be hard, and you are demotivated. The whole community begins to talk because they have all been waiting for you to start working. Your enemies discuss your dismal failure in life, and you are the laughing stock.
School dropouts laugh at you because you are now the same, sitting at home. No job and no direction in life. depression daunts you. although your family is supportive, even they start to worry about the quality of your qualifications. They recommend that you look for any job and at least start working. You can still continue looking for your dream job while you are waitressing or working at a store helping people find the right shoe size. You can even clean offices or sell snacks to school kids by the road. Anything to earn an income and keep you going.
“You take my life when you take the means whereby I live” – William Shakespeare
At this stage, you are beyond yourself. You question whether education really is the key to success. And if it is, it seems as if someone changed the lock.
Now you are part of the statistics. You are just another unemployed graduate.
It hurts, this is not the life you imagined. You are supposed to be working and living your best life. After all, you have followed the blueprint of life why won’t life be gentle to you.
However, this is just the beginning of a very long journey of unemployment.
Now it’s been a year and still nothing. Now you are not even job hunting anymore. More graduates are getting their qualifications and when you send your resume you are competing with a fresh graduate. It’s ten times harder.
Even worse, some new graduates get jobs and not you. The number of discouraged work-seekers and the total number of unemployed youth increases on a monthly basis and you could be one of them.
Now the saying: “of all the aspects of social misery nothing is so heartbreaking as unemployment” by Jane Addams, makes sense to you.
But before we give you the solution to your problems, lets understand why you are unemployed.
Causes of unemployment (reasons for unemployment in South Africa).
- Labour Demand and supply – When there is a low demand for skilled workers in a certain field then we experience a high supply which ultimately means we have too many skilled people than the industry or economy can absorb.
- Lack of capital – Often unemployed people do not have the funds to go to places that need them for employment. They could be living in villages and out-of-town areas while opportunities are more in cities. These are inaccessible to them. The manufacturing sector may be hiring in certain parts of the country, but if youth do not have access to them then that’s a challenge.
- Shortage of critical skills needed in the labour market – Unemployment is also caused by a lack of the skills needed in the economy or industry. While many are getting qualifications for a specific skill, it means other industries may experience a shortage.
Therefore, it’s imperative to study skills that are in high demand today and in the future. We need to improve our education system to feed the labor market with the necessary skills. This is the best way to fight the unemployment rate in South Africa.
- Immigration – While people are migrating between countries, this can affect the economy of the country that people are going to and the country they are leaving. The country that more people are flocking to may not have enough jobs for both immigrants and locals. This will result in unemployment.
- Low levels of education (unemployable) – If a country has more low-skilled workers than it can consume in its labour force then there could be high levels of unemployment. The lack of job opportunities for low-skilled workers requires a better way to consume these low skills into the economy.
In South Africa, the NYDA is working hard to train young people with the appropriate skills. Another similar program to fight this cause of unemployment is the National Rural Youth Services Corps which helps to stimulate rural economic activity and focuses on skills development.
- Lack of work experience – After obtaining degrees and other qualifications, young people struggle to find jobs because most companies require them to have some sort of experience. But how do they gain experience if they have just recently received their qualifications?
This kind of thinking results in high unemployed but qualified educated people. To curb this, many post-school training and development programs are put in place to help young people gain experience and be eligible for work. The end result is to hopefully reduce the unemployment rate in South Africa.
- Lack of network to get exposed to more opportunities – Often youth are not exposed to the right opportunities, and they end up sitting at home. Young people need to be exposed to more opportunities and they need to grab those opportunities when they come.
The official data shows that the employment rate has reached new record high levels of unemployment in the last year and the situation may be getting worse in the second quarter and third quarter of 2022. The lack of effective policy interventions from the government means that no help is in sight from the government. Not even social services will be able to help reduce the unemployment rate in South Africa.
So, what now?
You are at a crossroads with no silver lining. No end in sight to this horrible phase in your life. Yes, it’s a phase. Meaning it will pass.
When? You ask. I do not know. Nobody knows.
But in the meantime, what should you do?
Drink, eat, and sleep until the sun shines on you once again? that’s not a solution. Ignorance is not a solution. Hiding your head in the sand will not make the situation disappear either.
I suggest you get off your broke unemployed behind and do something about your situation. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you have been idling and doing nothing all this time, but I am saying now you have to be proactive. You have to aggressively go after what you want.
The universe responds to zeal, passion and determination. It responds to a spirit that never gives up and doesn’t have the word NO in its vocabulary.
You are smart, skilled and have the potential to still achieve your dreams. The saying when life gives you lemons you make lemonade means we don’t always get things the way we want them. It means if you hit a blocker this is an opportunity to climb over the blocker.
You are reading this article so I know there are a few assumptions I can make about the resources you have which we will use as a startup to your success. That assumption is that you have internet access and time. Above all, you are determined to make money and succeed. That’s all you need. You do not need to form part of the unemployment stats of South Africa anymore.
Let’s get started
How to make money online in South Africa
There are many opportunities to make money online for the unemployed youth of South Africa. There are unlimited opportunities for you to start your own businesses in the informal sector and the trade sector. Making money online is the kind of work many people do not consider.
However, in recent years after facing many economic challenges, job seekers need to find ways to help themselves with the skills they have or by learning new skills. Don’t wait for the South African government.
1. Freelancing (remote work)
You can be a freelancer with any skill you have. This means people pay you to do jobs for them for a fee. Some jobs include writing, web design, coding, and bookmarking.
Sites you can register for Freelancing are:
2. Get paid to watch YouTube videos
Some companies need you to watch their videos and they will pay you for watching their video. This is free money. It only requires your time and access to the internet.
3. Become a Virtual Assistance
With most companies working virtually since the pandemic the need for virtual assistants is on the rise. Here you help schedule, organize and plan meetings for someone or an organization. You could organize holidays/ vacations and book business trips and get paid for it.
You can find these virtual assistance jobs on platforms like:
4. Get paid to read books and review them
Multiple book writers need to know what your opinion is on the book they wrote, and they are willing to pay for you to read it. You can spell-check the book and give feedback for a fee.
5. Transcribing
If you are good at listening and writing, then transcribing is your thing. You get audio from different places, and you transcribe it. It’s easy, only time and internet access are needed
Sites for transcribing jobs are:
6. Blogging
If you are passionate about something and would like to share your story with the world, you can try blogging. This is where you write and talk about your passion. A lot of people could be helped by your blog.
You could be a great cook and start a blog to share recipes. Or maybe you are a tech fanatic, you can start a blog to share info on the latest gadget and new releases on the horizon. Or maybe you have green fingers and want to share tips on keeping a garden and when to plant which flowers. Honestly the possibilities are endless.
7. Teaching
If you are good at something and would like to teach others, there are various platforms to do this. You could teach English, Math, piano lessons and many more to anyone over the world.
You could even build course materials and sell them online and make money. There is a hunger for your skills. People need to be taught your skills and you can do it.
Sites for online teaching jobs are:
- Preply
- Cambly
- Udemy (create teaching material and sell it on this platform)
- italki
- VIPKid
- Open English
- Outschool
8. Social media manager
You spend most of your time on social media anyway and you know what is trending. Companies will pay you to build social media campaigns that trend and build business for them. Instead of aimlessly scrolling, you can manage social media platforms.
9. Influencer
If you already have a large social media following you can approach large brands and offer to use their products and promote them to all the people who follow you. Companies love people with large social media followings and pay them to promote products.
10. Work on building new skills
Yes, you have some sort of qualification but the question of what you want to be when you grow up doesn’t have to be answered once. Yes, you studied marketing but are not getting any opportunities in that field, maybe study graphic design you might enjoy it and actually be good at it.
Platforms to build new skills online:
The rate of unemployment in South Africa is bad. The country is headed for a disaster. In the words of Randall Woodfin: “Our unemployment is too high. Our poverty is too high. And our illiteracy is too high. All of that extends and lends itself to crime being high”.
You don’t have to feel depressed and powerless because of the unemployment rate in South Africa.
Do things differently. Change your today, change your tomorrow and live happily and peacefully
The unemployment rate in South Africa will not change overnight but you can take steps to improve your life.
Remember even if you are employed today, don’t think unemployment and South Africa’s economy is not your problem.
“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours” – Harry S. Trueman.
