The unemployment rate released by Statistics SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) indicates that the unemployment rate in South Africa peaked at 29.1% in the third quarter of 2019. 6.7 million South Africans are unemployed, and 71.5% of these have been looking for a job for more than 12 months http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12376 The 15-34 year youth group accounts for 63.4% of the total unemployed people. 39.6 of the youth were without jobs in the first quarter of 2019 http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12121

Unemployed people CANNOT afford to purchase data in order to perform basic internet-based functions such as browsing job-seeker websites, creating profiles, uploading CVs and qualifications, and sending and receiving emails. The government has tabled various initiatives to stimulate job creation and attract investment in order to increase economic growth and arrest the high unemployment rate. Unemployed people need DATA to access information and find employment.

It is my proposal to mobile operators to sponsor job seekers with free data tokens to enable them to access recruitment sites for free. This can be done by partnering with recruitment service providers and creating a database of recruitment sites where data tokens will give job seekers a free pass. The data will be valid only for registered providers. The data tokens can be allocated to job seekers that are registered on the Department of Labour's Employment Systems of South Africa (ESSA) database. Registered job seekers will claim the tokens from the Department of Labour, via a free USSD code delivered directly to their mobile phones. Once job seekers find employment, they will no longer be eligible for the data tokens.

We cannot overstate the impact that employment brings to households and business. More employment translates to more contribution to the tax-payer base, demand for goods, spending and economic growth. Employed people consume more cellular goods. BusinessTech has reported that the 2019 SA Consumer Digital Lifestyle Research Programme survey, carried out by BMI-TechKnowledge, shows that the average monthly spend on cellphone voice and data is R210 per month – peaking at R449 for the average high tech user. https://businesstech.co.za/news/mobile/101582/how-much-money-south-africans-spend-on-their-mobile-phones/
These monetary figures are steeply out of reach of unemployed people, hence they are perpetually left out of a fair chance to seek and find jobs. The result is a cycle of poverty with no end in sight.