Unemployment grows

Unemployment in Swaziland, already pegged at 45 percent by the labour ministry, worsened last year, news reports quoted the labour ministry as saying. Employment growth rate in 1998 was -3.4 percent, entering negative territory for only the second time in a decade. Employment levels in 1993 stood at 109,185, down from 110,512, added the reports. The ministry said about 10 percent of the workforce was retrenched last year, three times the rate of the year before. The manufacturing sector shed the most jobs as Asian markets undergoing economic crises failed to fulfil orders for Swazi goods, said the reports. Migrant labour, said the ministry, was down for the third year in a row during 1998. The number of Swazis employed in South African mines fell from 12,960 in 1997 to 10,338, with additional job losses recorded last year.