Labour all set for Jobs Summit

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

With just two days until the much anticipated Jobs Summit, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has announced that she is all set to deliver her opening and closing remarks at the summit.

Oliphant’s department is tasked with the regulation of the labour market through policies and programmes developed in consultation with social partners, which are aimed at improved economic efficiency and productivity, employment creation, sound labour relations, eliminating inequality and discrimination in the workplace, alleviating poverty in employment.

As such, Oliphant's participation in the summit - which will look into collaborative and high-impact interventions to drive job creation, job retention and economic growth - is imperative.

Held under the theme: “United we can create jobs” - the Jobs Summit on 4 and 5 October 2018 - was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2018 State of the Nation Address.

The President highlighted that jobs, especially for the youth, will be at the centre of the 2018 national agenda.
 
However, the unemployment continues to rise with the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) second-quarter data showing that unemployment had increased to 27.2 %.
 
The Jobs Summit will bring together government, business, labour and community organisations to advance job creation. It will provide a platform for open discussion on the challenges faced by each social partner in the creation of jobs.
 
The conference will also have commissions to discuss various themes in which Director-Generals in the Economic Sectors, Employment and Infrastructure Department (ESEID) cluster will participate together with representatives from business, labour and community organisations.

The themes will focus on: Enabling interventions/interventions supportive of employment creation, Sectoral interventions creating employment, and interventions focused on enhancing efficiencies.
 
The gathering will culminate with the signing of an agreement on the way forward and an anti-corruption pledge.
 
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Thursday also deliver the long-awaited keynote address. - SAnews.gov.za