South Africa’s ICT sector shows signs of recovery, unemployment rate rises
South Africa’s ICT sector continues to demonstrate signs of growth, recording a 0.3% increase to R243.6 billion in revenue last year despite the economic slowdown brought by the pandemic.
Released by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the 2022 State of the ICT Sector in SA report presents the performance and developments in the ICT sector, specifically in the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal services.
The report also showed revenue increase in broadcasting services and postal services by 2.8% to R36 billion and 11.1% to R6.6 billion, respectively.
However, telecom services experienced a slight decline of 0.5% during the evaluation period.
Meanwhile, despite the sector’s revenue growth, unemployment was down 22.4% last year, mirroring the country’s 35.3% overall unemployment rate.
In terms of employment, the report reveals a 22.4% decline in 2021 for the three sectors — telecom, postal services, and broadcasting — which mirrors SA’s overall unemployment rate.
Employment data shows the country’s unemployment level now stands at 35.3%, up from the 34.9%
Previously reported by Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), the government said that this is the highest unemployment rate in the country since 2008.
Female representation in the workforce has also decreased by 32.9% from 12,820 in 2020 to 8, 603 in 2021.
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