The Employment Services SA (ESSA) IT system has only placed 2% of the more than one million work-seekers who registered with the project since its inception four years ago.
The system falls under the auspices of the Department of Labour (DOL).
Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow minister of labour Andrew Louw says the database system, which is designed to link unemployed work-seekers to prospective employers, has produced dismal results, according to figures revealed by the labour minister, in response to a Parliamentary question.
“I shall be submitting oral questions as to whether the dismal performance of this aspect of the ANC government's job strategy will compel the department to scrap completely any further plans to extend the labour registry as proposed by the draft Employment Services Bill, currently before Cabinet.”
Dismal numbers
Louw adds that the ESSA numbers, when broken down according to the project's performance each year since 2007, reveal a grim picture of a system that has grossly under-performed.
“In the 2007/8 year, the system registered 169 059 work-seekers, and only placed 3% of them, with 5 578 finding work. In the 2008/9 and 2009/10 years, the ESSA registered 421 686 and 636 140 people respectively, and only placed 3.5% in 2008/9 and 1% in 2009/10.
“This is an indication that the system itself was bearing the brunt of the period in which the South African economy was heading into and indeed fell into a recession. The system showed itself incapable of dealing with a market under strain, with ESSA failing to place any significant number of these work-seekers into employment.”
In the current 2010/11 year, the system has already registered a further 97 596 people, and only placed 2 793 (2.8%) of these work-seekers into employment opportunities, according to Louw.
Unemployment crisis
“The ESSA is a symbolic representation of the inability of the ANC's current labour strategy to tackle the chronic unemployment crisis that SA faces. It has failed fundamentally to fulfil its core mandate, which is to provide a link between jobseekers and employers,” says Louw.
He adds that the DA is dismayed that the minister has proposed, in a draft Bill recently leaked to the media, the implementation of the system as the standard, centralised database system, which will obligate all private employers to register their vacancies and hire work-seekers from it.
“Clearly, given its poor track-record, the centralised nature of the ESSA is a deterrent to the private sector as it is a severely under-utilised system, seldom used by the private sector as a preferred source to find work-seekers. I will be posing oral questions to the minister to find out what measures he will take to improve the system and ensure the department is contributing to employment creation.”
Anti-jobs legislation
The DA also says the Bill would effectively limit the functions of temporary employment agencies (TEA) in SA.
“The Bill only recognises the service of recruiting work-seekers on behalf of another firm; however, it states that, 'no private employment agency may offer intermediary services to any employer, without a lawful licence'.
“The ANC's insistence on altering and meddling with a private sector system which works, and facilitates around two million jobs per annum, in a country where their other economic polices are not providing enough jobs, is concerning.”
“The question must be asked: Why does government want to compete with private enterprise?” says the DA.
Matchmaker system
DOL spokesperson Page Boikanyo explains that jobseekers who go to labour centres are registered onto the system. Job opportunities or vacancies are also registered electronically on the ESSA system.
An opportunity criterion is then matched to a suitable jobseeker profile for possible placement of the matched profile.
“Job criteria is matched 100% to a given jobseeker profile. For example, Grade 12 with two years' experience may not be matched with one of Grade 12 and 10 years' experience for the same job opportunity,” explains Boikanyo.
The matched jobseekers are referred to the employers for further selection or placement. In some instances, the matched jobseekers go through a career guidance and information session prior to referral, says Boikanyo.
He adds that employers register jobs on their own or are canvassed by the provincial offices of the department to register vacancies.
“There are mostly low-level skills job opportunities, although any kind gets registered,” says Boikanyo. Both permanent and temporary jobs are offered, but temporary jobs are greater in number, depending on the labour absorption capacity of the labour market at the time.
Boikanyo says there are agreements to facilitate the establishment of ICT infrastructure to enable online registration of both opportunity owners and the jobseekers, at vantage points such as kiosks and Thusong centres, in shopping malls.
“This method, we believe, will enable more skilled jobseekers to register and more employers to register on the system for more effective labour market interaction. The whole process should expedite the passage of the country's citizenry from positions of unemployment to those of income-generating environments.”
Share
