Unemployment in South Africa (Research Proposal Sample)

Unemployment in South Africa
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1.1 Introduction and background study.
The issues of unemployment is a very common affliction in the modern era. Unemployment is a very complex whose nature, cause as well as cures have remained in dispute for a long time. Employment’s pathology is complicated, with economic and social ratifications. In today’s globalization world, the issue of unemployment has become a global problem. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) over 200 million people are unemployed which is 32 million more than it was before the 2008 finical crisis. Unemployment has become a pandemic for both the developed and developing nations. However, in developing nations challenges inherent in unemployment are more severe due to challenges such as increased poverty as well as complications such as social and political instability. South Africa is definitely no exception. The issue of unemployment is one of the severe social-economic challenge facing South Africa today and it is the certain root cause of various social challenges facing South Africa like high crime rates, abject poverty as well as poverty.
1.2 Problem statement.
South Africa has a severe challenge of unemployment that requires a multi-pronged a strategy to raise employment rates so as to support inclusion as well as social cohesion. High employment rate shows that are practicing their expertise and skills as well as using their experience that is very important to drive the South African economy forward. High unemployment rates inhibits South Africa from economic development and poses a burden on the nation ability to provide social services. Statistics on the quarter labor force survey shows that in the first quarter of 2015 the labor force the number unemployed people reached 4.8 million, 66.1% were looking for jobs for a period of one year while 57.3% of jobseekers did not have matric. Study shows that Unemployment rate in South Africa has increased to 25 percent in 2014 from 22 percent in 1994. This paper examines the nature of unemployment in South Africa as well as the experiences unemployed people in South Africa.
1.3 Literature review.
South Africa is currently faced with low economic growth and a trapped middle class that is characterized by poor skills, weak competition as well as weak educational system that have resulted to high unemployment rates. South Africa has a spatial distribution of unemployment in cities. According to Kerith et, al. the apartheid planning of the cities in South Africa concentrated black population outer suburbs were most unemployed people are found. Unemployment rate is minimal in areas that were formally occupied by white people as compared to black people townships. The urban apartheid landscape as well as the slow development of former black townships have significantly fueled the rate of unemployment with the labor absorption rate in South Africa has significantly declining over the last 10 years CITATION Ker14 \l 1033 (Kerith & Melinde , 2014). Thero Setiloane, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, argues that South Africa entails one of the worst greatest youth employment menace globally CITATION Set15 \l 1033 (Setiloane, 2015). He hypothesis that at least 40.3% of the people eligible to employment are employed, with statistics of those who are in the age bracket of (15-34) being even worse. He quotes an illustration given by National Planning Commission, about a girl called Thandi to express the condition of the youths in South Africa in regard to unemployment. Thandi is in a group of students who began schooling on 1999. Out the group, only 55% made it go through formal schooling. Those who took exam to enroll into degree programs only 25 percent who were eligible to join institutions of higher learning. Worse is the fact that only 4 percent of black children such like Thandi who went into predominantly had money to take them to university to pursue degree programs. The issue of youth employment is very complex since the country is experiencing a youth bulge that presents opportunities for economic development if the young population is meaningfully employed. The education system that most black children population under is very poor. As matter of fact, South Africa loses half of every group in the current school system resulting to wastage of personal potential which is very critical for the development of the nation CITATION Set15 \l 1033 (Setiloane, 2015).
The affective experiences of unemployed individuals have a significant effect to the wellbeing of the individuals. According to Jahoda (1982), employment not only manifest itself in enabling individuals to earn a living but it also serves five latent functions. Latent functions are associated with the satisfaction of basic human wants. To that end, deprivation of the latent functions tends to have negative psychological effect on the wellbeing individuals. The available literature indicates that unemployment adversely affects individual’s psychological well-being. Sebastiaan Rothmann argues that if latent functions are not meant that health of individuals tend to deteriorate. He argues that in the modern day education acts as the prime source of satisfaction latent functions in the modern society CITATION Rot12 \l 1033 (Rothmann, 2012). Individual that are unemployed tend have limited access to latent functions than those who are employed making them prone to physiological difficulties. The costs of unemployment involve increased stress, isolation as well as lowered self-esteem CITATION Rot12 \l 1033 (Rothmann, 2012).
Jeremy (2013) theorizes that in South Africa age, gender and race have adversely shaped unemployment experiences. Race affects the experiences, behaviors as well as attitudes of unemployed people. It is because the black population has been subjected to decades of racial discrimination which is still evident in the modern day after independence. According to the National Planning Commission, years of racial discrimination have confined black people to menial labor which is associated with poor wages, poor living conditions as well as low quality education. Jeremy insists that in South Africa young people who are uneducated and those who are living in rural areas are the one who have been adversely affected by unemployment. Due to lack of access to latent functions, the costs of unemployment in South Africa involve high crime rates in various cities and neighborhoods, poverty, drug abuse as well as poor housing in black townshipsCITATION Une13 \l 1033 (Jeremy , 2013).
1.4 Causes of unemployment in South Africa.
Before independence in the 1994, various labor market distortions resulted due to the social and industrial policies of the Apartheid government, implication of these distortions are still evident even today. The legacies of Apartheid governance which induced capital- intensive and uncompetitive economy that excluded Africans has consistently marginalized most black people in South African in the labor force because most of them have been deprived of quality education and training. Survey shows that the improvement of skilled employment has increased unequally across Asian, white and black population with black population skilled workforce increasing at lower rate than Asian and white population. Unlike the increase in skilled workforce employment growth has been below real GDP growth in most sectors.
The unemployment rate among the youth who represents 53% of the entire population remains high in South Africa accounting for 70.2% of the people unemployed in South Africa. Unemployment rate is arguably the single most significant obstacle to poverty reduction. The incidence of unemployment falls harshly mostly among young South Africans who are mostly semi-skilled with very little or no experience of formal employment. The South African labor market is characterized by significantly high levels of unemployment when compared with other emerging market economies. Its labor force makes only 0.5% of the global labor force, while accounting for 2% of the global unemployment. A study carried by Global Entrepreneurship monitor explored perception of the unemployed population. The study showed that 80% of the unemployed who were looking jobs in South Africa were pessimistic and cited factors in the labor market and the slow growth of economy as the main cause of unemployed. Other cited limited jobs, lack of experience since most jobs required certain years of experience, low skills as the main cause of unemployment. Young people who are unemployed were very optimistic of finding a job. Majority of them were even willing to train more, relocate or even take a low paying job. Most of unemployed people in South Africa however sought to look for work through informal networks that are not usually used by the government or the private sector.
A study carried out by the Pretoria University questioned whether entrepreneurship was the answer to the problem of youth unemployment in South Africa since the job growth in both the public and private sector was slow. The report found out that despite the relevance of entrepreneurship in fighting the menace of unemployment there were series of problems that have made entrepreneurship very difficult for unemployed South Africans to engage into entrepreneurship. The audit shows a strong link between level of education and entrepreneurship by citing that it was very difficult for uneducated people to be successful in business venture. In general poor education, top-down decision making, limited employer support were found as the key causes of lack of...