UIF figures confirm rising employment

THE FINANCIAL performance and figures from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) database verify that more South Africans are being employed, says the Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana. Mdladlana referred to the fund’s records which show that at the end of January 2006, more than 7.1 million workers in both the domestic and commercial sector were registered with the fund, compared to the estimated 6.6 million registered at the same time last year. “The majority of these new registrations are new entrants in the labour market, while the rest are as a result of more employers now complying with the legislation to register workers,” says Mdladlana. “According to our records more than half a million more workers were registered with the fund between January 2005 and January 2006.