Image: GCIS
President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned of widening job losses as the effects of a shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus batter the economy.
Companies in the aviation, construction, entertainment and hospitality sectors have indicated plans to cut jobs because of heavy losses experienced in the past three months, Ramaphosa said on Monday in his weekly newsletter.
South Africa’s unemployment rate for the first quarter, due on Tuesday, is forecast to rise to 29.7%, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The economy could contract by 7% this year, according to central bank estimates.
That would be the most since the Great Depression, when output fell by 6.2% in 1931, central bank data shows.