A scheme to train and re-skill retrenched workers was launched by Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Friday.

In a landmark affirmative action case on Friday the Labour Court ruled that the South African Police Service should promote Captain Renate Barnard to Superintendent.

Mining giant Anglo American has announced a new enterprise development venture that will help to generate more jobs, support entrepreneurship and strengthen local economies in South Africa.

A total of 223 568 work opportunities were created between April and August this year as part of the expanded public works programme (EPWP), Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge reported on Monday.

The 400 000 barrel/day project Mthombo crude oil refinery to be built at Coega, in the Eastern Cape, would be the ideal opportunity to train locals to provide services to the refinery in the long term, PetroSA CEO Sipho Mkhize said.

An amount of R2.4 billion will be placed in a national job fund to help employers and workers weather South Africa's recession, President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday.

The number of enquiries from South Africans living abroad about the availability of top jobs on home ground has increased, a headhunting firm said on Wednesday.

The South African government is to extend its Expanded Public Works programme fourfold in the next five years, spending R4 billion (US$440 million) to create 4.5 million job opportunities by 2014. If successful, this will give work to roughly 10% of the country's population.

The EPWP uses public funds to boost job creation and skills development. It puts the unemployed to work on labour-intensive public projects such as road building, thereby not only providing them with short-term jobs but also helping them learn the skills they need for more permanent employment.

The Gautrain is expected to create about 148 000 direct, indirect and induced jobs over the next twenty years.

The South African government is to spend R10 billion over the next three years on the National Jobs Initiative, which will bring together a range of new and revamped programmes as part of an initiative to save jobs during the global economic crisis. Details of the initiative were released in a report, "Framework for South Africa's response to the international economic crisis", drawn up by a task team comprising members of government, business and organised labour, which met in Cape Town on Thursday.

Recruitment agencies have reported a dramatic increase in the number of international professionals and South Africans living abroad who are seeking employment in South Africa after the waves of retrenchments that have hit the US and Europe.

The Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) has announced that it will cut is base interest rates by 2.5% in a bid to provide some relief to local small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the face of the current global economic crisis. 

South Africa's unemployment rate declined from 23.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to 23.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has surpassed its target of creating one million work opportunities a year ahead of schedule, Public Works Minister Thoko Didiza said on Thursday. 

A range of bangles bearing former president Nelson Mandela's prison number will create jobs and contribute to the fight against HIV and Aids, said a Johannesburg businessman.

Grant Thornton’s Employment Growth Index (EGI) has reflected a 6% year-on-year growth in employment among medium to large privately held businesses in South Africa.

The EGI, which is part of Grant Thornton’s International Business Report, measures the absolute increases and decreases in employment, as reported by the privately held businesses surveyed.

Unemployed residents in the greater Athlone area in the Western Cape are to benefit from the governments Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), which aims to create about 5 000 jobs this year.

South Africa’s unemployment rate sank to 23 percent in September last year, a record low since the inception of the Labour Force Survey in 2001, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

 "It is the biggest decline since 2001 which was at 29.4 percent," said deputy director general for population and social statistics Kefiloe Masiteng in Pretoria.

The Homecoming Revolution will be hosting their second recruitment exhibition in Dubai in an effort to bring skilled South Africans back home.

The Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) will be hosting seminars throughout the country aimed at providing recent matriculants and graduates with information about employment, entrepreneurial and further education opportunities.

Sea Ark’s development of a 12 000 hectare prawn farming facility is set to create up to 11 000 direct jobs in South Africa. The decision to roll out the massive facility follows the success of the pilot project conducted within the Coega Industrial Development Zone near Port Elizabeth.

South Africa is among the top countries with the strongest first quarter hiring prospects in 2008.

According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released yesterday, employers across all sectors of the South African labour market have optimistic expectations for the first quarter of 2008.

 

 

Leaders of South Africa's 70 largest business firms have vowed to make skills development a priority in their companies.

Thirty-four of South Africa’s top companies will be heading off to London on the weekend of 13th and 14th October to participate in the second jobs exhibition organized by the Homecoming Revolution.

The Coega Development Corporation has reported a sharp increase in the number of people employed on site at the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) in the Eastern Cape. The total number employed last month was 4,405. This recent intake of labour brings the total number of construction jobs created since the Coega Project started to 19,940.