IQ4News ,a UK based African media firm has partnered with Virtual Human Capital an online application, to launch a new job network in South Africa in a move to beat unemployment now nearly at 25 percent.

 
The IQ4News/VHC partnership will allow South Africans at home and in the Diaspora and those wishing to work in South Africa, to search for job opportunities online.

Theo Lagonikos, spokesperson for VHC  said Job creation and facilitation is a never ending challenge for South Africa.

Lagonikos added, “We have partnered with IQ4News and leading media partners in South Africa to create the VJobs partner network, a virtual network to enable companies/recruiters and job seekers to find each other. We are extremely pleased to have the IQ4News job portal as part of this network”.

According to a report by Statistics South Africa, South Africa’s unemployment rate is at 24.9 percent, dropping from 25.2 percent in the first quarter but a over 79 percent of these are under the age of 35, with some 26,000 graduates unemployed.

The report further reports that “Approximately 4.5 million persons were looking for work in the 2nd quarter of 2012, of which 3,0 million (or 67.8%) have been looking for work for a period of 1 year or longer. Furthermore, 58.6% of the job seekers did not have matric. Despite overall levels of unemployment declining year-on-year, the number of unemployed persons increased by 24,000 among those with tertiary education.”

The network is therefore a welcome move to help reduce unemployment even more.

Dr Yemisi Akinbobola, Editor-in-Chief, IQ4News said he was happy to launch the Job Portal at such a crucial time in the country.

He said,“Access to jobs and the creation of jobs is vital to the economy of every country, and we hope that through our new jobs portal, we are contributing our bit to the South African economy”.