Lehohla urges policy makers to act on data
ECONOMIC data shows a South African economy in a “difficult” situation and it is up to policy makers to “listen” and “act” on the figures‚ says statistician-general Pali Lehohla.
Statistics SA has released a string of economic data which has been showing weak economic growth and job creation‚ and rising inflation.
Lehohla said last week the facts presented by the figures should help give policy makers direction on what needs to be done.
“Facts do a lot in ensuring policy is driven. People talk about political will but this is an ephemeral concept. Where I have seen (political) will work‚ is where will is supported by facts‚” he said.
Debate has been raging about the need for policy that centres on improving education in order to address the structural nature of unemployment.
Lehohla said unemployment remained high despite the creation of 653 000 jobs. “But when unemployment is so high‚ 653 000 jobs is a matter of a cup still very much empty rather than half full.
“It is high unemployment and in particular exacerbated by structural unemployment and people do not have the skills. Education should be improved.”
Economists.co.za chief economist Mike Schussler said there was room for improvement where policy was concerned. Four out of every 10 adults were not working‚ compared with five out of 10 in 1990.
“It is clear that the big promises that were made about jobs have not materialised‚” said Schussler.
Improving the quality of education and reducing red tape for businesses would unlock employment opportunities‚ he said.
Lehohla said that data collection was a “very difficult” exercise and Statistics SA was looking to improve its methods through better communication with those from whom it collects data.
Statistics SA’s data collection methods have often been questioned by workforce outsourcing company Adcorp‚ which releases its own jobs report on a monthly basis.
Statistics SA and Adcorp have been in a long standoff‚ with each questioning the other’s methodology. Lehohla said Statistics SA was not against criticism as such but against “uninformed criticism”.
The role of Statistics SA was to put facts across regarding the state of the economy. Its main jobs data are collected in the quarterly labour force survey (QLFS)‚ which is conducted among households and includes informal sector jobs‚ and the quarterly employment statistics (QES) – a survey which is conducted among taxpaying businesses.
Discrepancies exist between the two reports on the number of formal sector jobs. The QLFS showed 10.773-million people employed by the formal sector‚ while the QES showed there were 8.495-million.
Lehohla said this discrepancy could be explained: “Small businesses (that) are not registered yet could be operating in the formal sector. “The QES is based on businesses paying VAT (value-added tax) and there are still formal sector businesses that are non-VAT paying.” – BDLive