JOHANNESBURG, December 9 (ANA) – Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) on Friday welcomed the extension of the Employment and Learnership Tax Incentive schemes which is aimed at supporting youth job creation.
This comes after Parliament on Friday extended the Employment Tax Incentive scheme for a further two years and Learnership Tax Incentive scheme for five years.
In the first full year of its implementation, the Employment Tax Incentive scheme is reported to have supported around 645,973 youth between the ages of 15-30.
BUSA said it made submissions to National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) and Parliament based on both qualitative and quantitative independent research on the Employment Tax Incentive.
The research illustrated that the Employment Tax Incentive had supported hundreds of thousands of youth to gain access to first-time work experience, thereby significantly increasing their future employment prospects.
The research also demonstrated that the Employment Tax Incentive supported employees were paid higher wages on average, had more secure employment, and had improved prospects for skills development and indefinite employment.
“In conjunction with the CEO Initiative, and with the support of these incentives, business will seek to make a significant contribution to growing youth employment through the Youth Employment Service (YES) scheme,” BUSA said in a statement.
“As business, and together with our social partners, we are committed to finding lasting solutions that tackle youth employment and inclusive growth, both critical ingredients that, if supported, will address our country’s triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
