The leading cause of unemployment in South Africa is structural unemployment. You often hear analysts chanting to focus on structural unemployment. They often present their best plans to decrease rates of mismatched skill jobs and compel the government to initiate educational programs so the students can learn new skills.
That is because of structural unemployment, a type of long-term unemployment caused by a mismatch between the skills of aspirants and the skills demanded by employers. It is one of the reasons why more than a quarter of the population in South Africa is unemployed.
Let’s discuss how structural unemployment impacts citizens and what its causes are.
What is Structural Unemployment?
Structural unemployment is a type of unemployment in which jobs are available in a region, but the aspirants do not possess the skills to pursue these jobs. The dynamic changes in the world economy affect South African business trends, that is why new skills are in demand in the industrial areas or in the job market. For example, South Africa is one of the leading countries producing engineers in all fields, but the demand for engineers decreases every year.
On the other hand, the demand for graphic designers, website developers, Amazon account handlers or UX/UI experts is rising. Now, the number of engineers will increase in the country while the number of experts in the graphics field will decrease, which will create a gap. The demand for graphic designers will surge, but the shortage of skilled professionals may leave these positions looking for the right experts.
Similarly, the number of engineers will increase in the country, and industries, firms, or organizations will be fully staffed; therefore, the rest of the professionals will remain unemployed. This phenomenon in which the skills available and the skills demanded mismatch is called structural unemployment.
In the example of engineers, you can see how many skilled people are unemployed because they acquired the skill in a non-demanding field. For instance, accounting and finance, library science, network marketing, artisanship, or forensic science are non-demanding. Comparatively, the demanding skills are business management, architecture, taxation, information technology, and nursing or professional caregiving professions.
If you see the statistics, the number of non-demanding skill professionals is high in the country compared to the in-demand skill professionals. It has created a huge gap between job positions and aspirants, which is widening day by day. For this, the government of South Africa, collaborating with private organizations, launched multiple programs to lower the rates of unemployment by providing people with a quality education of the demanded skills.
Causes of Structural Unemployment
Technological Advancement
One of the major causes of structural unemployment is the rapid change in the technological world. New types of machinery are developed on daily basis, the approaches to using different types of machinery are changing, and more sophisticated plus complex devices have arrived in the industries. For example, the mining sector, one of the major sectors in South Africa, is using new automatic advanced machinery which does not require an operator.
Mining industries are working on advanced machines and hiring people who can use complex devices. On the other hand, mining engineers are still learning to solve the fundamental electrical or mechanical issues of the machines instead of learning new devices. Technology advancement in the country has replaced the jobs of many.
Changes In Industries
Another leading cause of structural unemployment is the changes in the industries coming over time but replacing the jobs of many. For example, there were organizations controlling taxi services in the country, but Uber and other platforms replaced them and vanished the careers of these industry workers. Another example is that travel agencies operated in the country where thousands of people were working.
But the online application forms have vanished the jobs of travel agents. Like these two, hundreds of professions have vanished, and people who had specialization in these careers are now unemployed.
A Large Number Of Immigrants
South Africa thrived under the supervision of Mandela and his descendants, which made our country a hub of opportunities. It opened the doors for the Bostowanians, Zimbabweans and Namibians to come to our country and work in the field. It helped immigrants but also negatively affected the employment rates, causing thousands of South Africans to be unemployed and immigrants to replace them.
Structural unemployment has become overwhelming and seems impossible to control and manage. Long-term unemployment will take years to bring under control until we educate and train demanding skills to the people. We should provide citizens with advanced technology skills and solve immigration issues; anyhow, I hope this information will help you in future; thank you.