Leomoo.com

Absa’s SME Index aims to provide valuable information on the current state of SMEs in the country and the level and challenges of employment in South Africa.

The Absa SME Index data is extrapolated from Statistics South Africa’s information on various economic indicators that are issued regularly.

Absa Group’s Chief Executive for Retail and Business Banking (RBB) Bobby Malabiesays with the data collected to measure the number of people that have been employed by companies versus the unemployment figures in the country over the last two decades, it’s quite evident that unemployment remains one of South Africa’s key challenges into the foreseeable future.

“This is especially rife in the youth category where unemployment is as high as 50% and its clearly unsustainable taking into consideration that we have 15 million people on social welfare, but only 7 million are taxpayers,” says Malabie.

The Absa SME Index also shows that while only about 270 000 out of the more than 1,9 million businesses employ five or more employees other than the owner, only 10% of those businesses employ more than 50 employees and that is less than 4% of all employees.

Mr Malabie says while it may be easy to say we need more businesses to employ more people, unfortunately there has been a consolidation of businesses (mergers, and partnerships) while others have been forced to close down due

We recommend you visit the following site for more complete information and related topics. Article source: http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/content/en/moneyweb-south-africa?oid=612579&sn=2009%20Detail