Only about 700 000 of the 4.3 million unemployed people in SA are registered as work-seekers on the Employment Services of SA (ESSA) system.
This figure has not changed since 2008, according to the Department of Labour (DOL).
In conjunction with the University of SA and the Human Sciences Research Council, the DOL has unveiled five research reports.
These studied the effectiveness of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), as well as the ESSA system, among others.
Setsomi Molapo, chief director responsible for labour market policy, says: “The research is a yardstick through which we measure our performance in terms of Batho-pele principles and also on the challenges we face in terms of these sectors in registering their employees for UIF as well as the effectiveness of ESSA.”
IT challenge
The department says the research revealed that overall the public is satisfied with the services offered by the UIF.
The ESSA research report revealed that over 700 000 of the 4.3 million unemployed people are registered as work-seekers on the ESSA system.
“The challenges ESSA is facing includes staff and IT systems' capacity, inter-relationships between stakeholders, and matching and placing more work-seekers in employment,” says the DOL.
There are 2 714 employers registered on ESSA. For the period 2007 to 2010, 251 748 opportunities were registered with the system.
ESSA is an employment service that allows unemployed citizens and prospective employers to register on the system. The system matches people to job posts.
Poor record
The department in 2010 revealed in response to a parliamentary question that the system had only placed 2% of the more than a million work-seekers who registered with the project since its inception, at that point four years ago.
Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow minister of labour, Andrew Louw, says 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.
“Job criteria is matched 100% to a given job-seeker 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 DOL spokesperson Page Boikanyo.
He adds that the matched job-seekers are referred to the employers for further selection or placement. In some instances, the matched job-seekers go through a career guidance and information session prior to referral.
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