Now for a jobs summit

The second national land conference, which ends in Windhoek today, has taken considerable stock of what has happened over the past 28 years when it comes to land reform, the urban land crisis and their associated debacles.In sharper focus is how poverty is passed on from generation to generation, because the poor do not own the means of production, including land. A bigger crisis is, however, the ongoing job losses in the country, which have severe impacts on Namibian families.Economist Rowland Brown previously said the country needs economic growth of over 4% annually to create jobs faster than the labour force is growing.The country’s real GDP growth is projected to improve from -0.8% in 2017 to 0.6% in 2018 and 1.9% in 2018, the Bank of Namibia stated in its July 2018 Economic Outlook report.The growth projections are weaker than the 1.4% and 2.1% forecast during February 2018, reflecting the disappointing growth rate for 2017, which was published in the Preliminary National Accounts for 2017.A paper launched by the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry in April, titled 'State of the economy, the challenge of unemployment and employment-creation strategies particularly for the youth', showed that the construction industry lost 30 000 jobs from September 2016 to August 2017.The Employment Equity Commission said in its 2016/17 report that 60 100 jobs were lost that year.Economic Association of Namibia economist Klaus Schade said in July that close to 130 000 people lost their jobs from 2014 to 2017. These job losses included 74 000 in the agriculture sector.It is safe to say that employment losses have become a national crisis, which needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.High-impact interventions to drive more employment opportunities, job retention and economic growth are urgently needed.Business, investor, civil society and political and government delegations need to urgently convene a jobs summit to face this doom head-on.

Now for a jobs summit

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-08

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Now for a jobs summit

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-08

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