SA’s jobless rate eases, still very high

PRETORIA — South Africa’s official jobless rate eased to 25% of the labour force in the third quarter as the trade and finance sectors created jobs, Statistics South Africa said yesterday.

The government has pushed joblessness to the top of its agenda but has acknowledged the rate of economic growth needs to double to 7% a year to make a meaningful dent in unemployment.

Seventeen years after the end of apartheid, millions continue to live in poverty and young blacks are growing increasingly disillusioned with the ruling African National Congress that led the fight against white-minority rule.

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