Employment and Labor Minister nomakhosazana meth He says his department is intensifying efforts to tackle unemployment through a combination of employment programmes, skills development initiatives and labor market reforms, all aimed at improving opportunities for South Africans.
Speaking during the Government Communications and Information Systems (GCIS) Deep Dive media briefing on 1 June, he said that despite signs of economic stabilization and improving investor confidence, South Africa faces a “missing jobs crisis”.
“On the one hand, we are seeing real signs of economic stability, our power supply is improving and investor confidence is being renewed.
“On the other hand, despite periods of economic growth over the past two decades, South Africa has failed to create sufficient employment opportunities for young people. By 2024, almost one million people entered the labor market, yet only about 40% achieved stable employment, while the remainder either survived through precarious work or joined the growing ranks of the long-term unemployed,” Meth said.
He said that while the official unemployment rate stood at 32.7% in the first quarter of this year, the country had recorded two consecutive quarters of improvement in the second half of 2025, with the unemployment rate falling to 31.4% in the fourth quarter – the lowest level since the third quarter of 2020.
Meth said unemployment should not only be seen as an economic issue but also as a social justice challenge that undermines dignity, threatens social stability and compromises the future prospects of millions of young South Africans.
He pointed out that DEL has declared 2026 “the year of putting young South Africans into work” and is directing significant resources towards labor market interventions. The department has been allocated R4.5-billion for the 2026/27 financial year, while the Unemployment Insurance Fund and Compensation Fund are budgeted at R41-billion and R28-billion respectively.
Meth said DEL's revised labor activation program will focus on three pillars, including workplace-integrated education and placement, demand-based skills training and support for small-scale enterprises. The program aims to create 200,000 opportunities during the current financial year, including placements for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students, graduate trainees, trainee engineers, accountants, health inspectors and other young professionals who require workplace experience to complete their qualifications.
He said the department is placing greater emphasis on training in line with labor market demands, especially around digital skills. As part of this effort, DEL plans to train 10,000 youth in digital skills and also provide assistance to an additional 10,000 program participants to obtain driver's licenses to overcome barriers to employment.
Meth also called on employers to make greater use of the Employment Service South Africa database, which contains information on more than seven million work seekers, including approximately four million youth.
Meanwhile, the minister also said that labor market reforms under the National Labor Migration Policy and Employment Services Amendment Bill were aimed at balancing the security of employment opportunities for South Africans with the economy's demand for critical and scarce skills.
answering a question of Engineering News and Mining Weekly Role of the private sector and message to businesses in the hospitality and construction sectors that rely on foreign workers, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Jomo Sibiya Urged businesses to prioritize employing South Africans and fully comply with labor and immigration laws.
He warned that labor inspections and enforcement campaigns would be stepped up and that DEL was moving towards tougher penalties, including criminal charges, for employers who repeatedly break the law in this regard.
“The era of impunity is changing. Our labor laws must be respected. One of the labor law reforms we are (implementing) is that our penalties will be harsher because there are (some) employers who even budget for non-compliance,” he said.
He argued that some employers prefer to hire undocumented foreign workers, because they may be paid less than the national minimum wage and are more vulnerable to exploitation.
Sibiya said the department is working with organized stakeholders in the hospitality sector to improve compliance and understanding of labor laws. While progress was being made, individually owned restaurants remained a particular area of concern.
He said DEL has also stepped up inspections in the construction industry, citing recent operations in the Western Cape in which dozens of undocumented foreign nationals were arrested on construction sites.
Meth said the department would continue to combine advocacy and compliance efforts, but warned that employers who ignored opportunities to voluntarily comply would face tougher enforcement measures as the government expands its labor inspectorate and implements its labor market reform agenda.