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From VOA Learning English, |
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this is the Economics Report. |
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The South African Department of Labor reported last month |
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that the nation has too few jobs for unskilled labourers. |
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The department also said there are not enough workers |
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for highly skilled positions. |
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The sharp differences between jobs and skills |
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were apparent recently |
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when officials advertised a job opening in the government. |
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The position was that of auditor-general |
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or chief financial supervisor. |
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With a 26 percent unemployment rate nationwide, |
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there was no shortage of interest in the job. |
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90 people asked to be considered. |
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But officials said many of them |
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lack the necessary skills of education. |
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The auditor-general is responsible for supervising |
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and independently examining South Africa's finances. |
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The advertisement said, |
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the position required the person to be a trained accountant. |
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It said candidates had to have at least |
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a Master's degree and years of experience. |
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Yet among the job hopefuls were laborers, |
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a security guard, a secretary |
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and some whose highest education level was high school. |
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The Labor Department report |
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blamed the nation's poor education system. |
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But for unskilled workers, the story is very different. |
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Restaurant industry official TJ Van der Walt says |
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the business he works with |
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get a huge number of applications for every job. |
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"We deal in an industry where there's no real skill needed, |
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so we get literally thousands of applicants |
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for the positions that we get." |
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Mr Van der Walt notes that good workers are hard to find. |
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He says he spends a lot of time |
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studying the job qualifications of people |
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who don't have the require skills. |
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In his words, people just want jobs. |
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Sejamothopo Motau is a member of South Africa's Parliament. |
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He says the job market is difficult, |
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and both skilled and unskilled workers are feeling the pain. |
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He says education has been a major problem |
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in South Africa's development. |
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He notes that many Blacks received a poor education |
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under white-minority rule. |
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Apartheid officially ended in 1994. |
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He says many people are university graduates, |
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still they can't get jobs |
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where there is a need for skilled workers. |
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This is because the education these graduates have |
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is not enough to place them in jobs with high skill requirements. |
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"So what it tells us is |
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-- and I think everybody in this country now accepts that - |
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- is that there's a mismatch between our education system |
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and the products of that system, |
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and the needs, the economic needs, of the country." |
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Mr Motau's party estimates |
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that 4 million young South Africans are unemployed. |
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And that's the Economics Report from VOA Learning English. |
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I'm Mario Ritter. |
