Unemployment In South Africa: Reasons, Impact, And Mitigation Measures

Learning outcomes

Unemployment is a considered a major socio-economic threat around world. According to Yu (2013), especially in the country of South Africa, the rate of unemployment is highest with 27.2%. Unemployment is considered as major issue both socially as well as economically since it denotes a bad economic condition of a country. Many economists consider that this high unemployment rate directly links to the poverty rate of the country. Several reasons has triggered the rate of unemployment in the country, such as low quality of education, less occupational opportunities, increased population and so on. Hence, it demands an immediate call for the measures through which the issue can be addressed.

Comparing to other countries all over the world, the rate is high drawing the immediate attention of nation to address the issue. A wider range of research can be seen on the issue of unemployment, however, most of the researches were done attempting to find out either the reasons for which the issue is increased or the impacts of high unemployment rate in the country (Spaull 2013). There is hardly any research has been done that aimed to give measures in order to mitigate high unemployment rate in the country. Since it is major issue, some measures should be recommended which aim to mitigate the issue. Thus, the study will research on this field and will suggest some positive measures to increase employment rate in the country.

The aim of the study is to research o the current scenario of employment condition of the country and then to figure out the reasons that trigger the increasement of the rate of unemployment. However, the main purpose of the research is to identify and recommend measures through which employment rate can be increased mitigating the issue.

The reaserch will be holding immense importance since unlike other researches which highlighted the issue and the reasons, this reaserch will further go on suggesting the measures that suggest successful mitigation of the issue. Since there are hardly any reaserch has been conducted that recommend the ways of mitigation of the issue, this study will take an attempt to fill the gap of research.

According to Ezzy (2017), due to unemployment, a large number of social issue are emerged. The major social issue that is triggered by unemployment is high rate of crimes. Due to the financial need, individuals mainly the young unemployed individuals are indulged into criminal practices like robbery, smuggling, stealing, and trafficking and so on. Even it is seen people commit the crime of contact killing in order to gain money. An ethical deviation is largely seen among the individuals of a society that is under the effect of low employment rate. The rate of crime generally tends to be increased when the issue of unemployment is left unresolved. On the other hand, Brand (2015) suggests that the social generated by unemployment rate is the poor societal structure. High unemployment means lack of financial resources to the individuals. Naturally, people fail to meet the basic necessities for him as well as for the entire family which give birth to personal conflicts between the family members and an unhealthy domestic environment. Due to the lack of financial resources caused by unemployment, people fail to give proper educational opportunities to their children and as result, they remain lagged behind in race of life.

Reasons behind high unemployment rate in South Africa

As per Brown (2018), the impact of unemployment due to unemployment is equally significant on the economy of a country. Since unemployment refers to lack of financial strength of people of the society which leads to poverty. Stolarick and Currid-Halkett (2013) states that unemployed people indulge in taking debts that leads to economical disasters. Poor and needy people in such condition, tend to indulge in practices like gambling which make Rich richer and poor poorer. Thus social as well as economical structures both are adversely impacted by unemployment.

As per Keynes (2018), high employment is important for a country’s economy and society since it brings parity in the economical as well as social structure. In order to have a better economy it is important that the issue of high unemployment rate is mitigated. Beveridge (2014) further suggests that employment not only brings parity in the economic as well as social structure, but it helps a country’s economy to be stronger and remain ahead of other economies.

As per Choy (2014), the positivism philosophy of research will be followed since this philosophy is considered as the most useful philosophy of research in order to carry out a research in a detailed manner. In accordance with Flick (2015),  in terms of research design, the analytical design of research will be chosen so that the research can be conducted in a descriptive manner. With the analytical research design a thorough knowledge of high unemployment rate and its consequences can understood. In order to collect data, both the primary as well as secondary data collection method will be adopted. In terms of primary data collection mode, the study will conduct several interviews and surveys (Panneerselvam 2014). On the other hand, in order to collect data through the mode of secondary data collection, the several sources like journal articles available over internet will be accessed. In both the ways the research will be carried out in an extensive manner.

In order to interpret the data collected though primary and secondary data collection mode, the collected data will be transformed into figures according to the quantitative analysis method. On the other hand thematic approach will be adopted so that qualitative data can be read and evaluated (Flick, 2015). In order to present the collected data, graphs, charts and several other presentations will be used.

Ethical considerations will be kept in mind while conducting the research. While conducting the research, use of any organization’s logo will be strictly avoided so that no advertisement is portrayed by the documents. It will be assured that the research will be done academic purpose only.

Activities	1st to 3rd Week	4th to 10th week	11th to 13th  Week	14th to 17th  Week	18th to 21st  Week	22nd  to 23rd  Week	24th  Week
Selection of the topic	ü
Data collection from secondary sources	ü	ü
Creating layout		ü
Literature review		ü	ü	ü
Analysis and interpretation of  collected data				ü	ü	ü
Findings of the data					ü	ü
Conclusion of the study						ü
Formation of draft						ü	ü
Submission of final work							ü

Gantt Chart: created by author

References 

Beveridge, W. H. (2014). Full Employment in a Free Society (Works of William H. Beveridge): A Report. Routledge.

Brand, J. E. (2015). The far-reaching impact of job loss and unemployment. Annual review of sociology, 41, 359-375.

Brown, P. (2018). Routledge Revivals: Schooling Ordinary Kids (1987): Inequality, Unemployment, and the New Vocationalism. Routledge.

Choy, L.T., (2014). The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), pp.99-104.

Ezzy, D. (2017). Narrating unemployment. Routledge.

Flick, U., (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project.Sage.

Keynes, J. M. (2018). The general theory of employment, interest, and money. Springer.

Panneerselvam, R., (2014). Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt.Ltd..

Spaull, N. (2013). South Africa’s education crisis: The quality of education in South Africa 1994-2011. Johannesburg: Centre for Development and Enterprise, 1-65.

Stolarick, K., & Currid-Halkett, E. (2013). Creativity and the crisis: The impact of creative workers on regional unemployment. Cities, 33, 5-14.

Yu, D. (2013). Youth unemployment in South Africa since 2000 revisited. Documentos de trabajo económico, 4, 13.