The Covid-19 pandemic has been a thorny issue since its arrival in late 2019.
Most sectors are still struggling to plough back jobs lost during the second quarter of last year.
We believe that the only way to get employment to pre-Covid-19 levels is through sustainable economic growth and increased fixed capital investment as most sectors are cyclical.
But we are concerned that this may not happen as the recent budget expects gross fixed capital formation to decline in 2021 and grow marginally in 2022 and 2023.
Indeed, the distribution of vaccines will help recoup some lost jobs, but a robust employment-centred strategy is needed from president Ramaphosa’s government.
Source: StatSA and 27four calculations