South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during his 2019 State of the Nation Address.
GCIS/GovernmentZA/Flickr
Many of the crime prevention strategies South African President Cyril Ramaphosa proposed have been tried, with few positive results.
Soweto in South Africa. Apartheid’s spacial planning still affects people’s lives.
Flickr/John Karwoski
The high costs of finding work make it difficult for young South Africans to get jobs.
Things will continue to look good enough for long enough to help the government fight the election. Beyond that, the Conversation Economic Panel is worried.
Wes Mountain/The Conversation
The Conversation has assembled a forecasting team of 19 academic economists from 12 universities across six states. Together, they assign a 25% probability to a recession within two years.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Tito Mboweni (centre) arrives to deliver the mid-term budget statement to Parliament.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
South Africa needs to urgently step up its efforts to drive economic growth by harnassing the power of the state, as well as the markets.
But that counts people working less than six hours a week on zero-hour contracts.
Conservative & Unionist Party
The government insistence of an employment success story betrays the reality of austerity job cuts and pay squeezes for many
African National Congress supporters during the recent ANC Election manifesto launch in Durban.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
A great deal of analysis on South Africa and the ruling ANC seems to be based on wishful thinking, not concrete reality.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s party, the ANC, faces a tough set of elections in May.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook
The African National Congress faces two big challenges: fewer South Africans trust it, while its electoral support has been waning.
Single parent and extended families are the dominant family forms in South Africa.
shutterstock
More attention needs to be paid to aligning South Africa’s family policy with the realities of everyday life.
A large number of poor South Africans live in informal settlements.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Initiatives to boost South Africa’s economy could reinforce structural weaknesses without addressing the high levels of inequality.
Shutterstock
Scotland tends to take a more progressive approach to inequality, but how is it actually faring compared to the rest of the UK?
Philip Toscano/PA Archive
The system of welfare conditionality that underpins Universal Credit is ineffective at moving people off social security and into work.
South Africa needs to create more jobs - but there’s no clarity on how this might happen.
Nic Bothma/EPA
South Africa’s job summit ignored the great chasms that exist on how to create jobs.
Shutterstock
While many jobs are being replaced by technology, those that participate in the making of (good) social experiences for people are bucking the trend.
Shutterstock.
The best way to help young people into work is to listen to their aspirations, and cater to their needs.
Informal trading in Fordsburg, Johannesburg.
Shutterstock
South Africa needs to rethink the role of the informal economy as it mulls over ideas to beat joblessness.
Amazon has lifted its lowest pay rate to US$15 an hour.
Shutterstock
Australia’s unemployment rate may have to fall much more before we see any wages growth.
A significant number of South Africans can’t find jobs and scrounge for a living on the sidelines of the economy.
Shutterstock
South Africa’s jobs summit failed to acknowledge fundamental issues in the approach to development and job creation.
An Amazon employee applies tape to a package before shipment.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
The rise of superstar companies that dominate their industries may be partly to blame for the lack of wage growth in the US in recent years. It could also suggest a solution.
Relationships at work affect employees’ decisions to stay in jobs.
Shutterstok/LongJon
While pay and profit are not irrelevant in employees’ work decisions, there are other motivators.
Students graduate.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder
With the unemployment rate at about the lowest level in almost 50 years, how much lower could it go? An economist explains.