Unemployment problem?

It was a Monday night, work was done and I had just brewed a cup of camomille tea. After the day I have had, a nice calm-me-down is just what I needed. I joined my wife in the patio room as she indulged in her viewing pleasure.

Luckily for me, it was not the usual K-drama, I have no beef with K-drama’s and in fact when it comes to production quality there is no better, but sometimes you don't want to read subtitles and just want to watch mindlessly.

She was watching season 20 of The Bachelorette USA and it was the first episode.

First impressions count and I eagerly awaited to see the contest unravel.

First impression rose

As the guys got out and attempted their very best to make a good first impression. I was fascinated, not by the contest and reality style of this everlasting show but by the contestant's occupations.

If a show like The Bachelorette was to show in South Africa you would see lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, doctors, scientists, pilots, etc. That would be expected and not out of the norm. A focus is placed on education and having a degree is almost a minimum in South Africa. NQF level 7 is kinda normal and dare I say NQF level 9 is quickly becoming normal too…

With so many professionals South Africa still has the highest unemployment rate in the world. South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 32.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The Quarterly Labor Force Survey reported that the number of unemployed working-age people in South Africa rose to 7.9 million after 46,000 more became unemployed in the last three months of 2023, increasing from 31.9%.

7,9 million people are unemployed!!!

Back to the Bachelorette

What stood out most to me (besides the height of some of these gents) were the occupations :

Tennis Pro, Software Salesman, Biomedical Scientist, Mortgage Lender, Software Sales Rep, Pro Wrestler, Data Scientist, Yacht Captain, Travel Nurse, Firefighter, Realtor, Attorney, Construction Manager, Resident Physician, Underwater Welder, Harvard Grad Student, Construction Salesman, Medical Sales, Director, World Record Jumper, Tech Operations Director, Tech Recruiter, HR Executive, Airline Pilot, Loan Officer

I have marked the occupations in bold that require an NQF level 7 or above

Summary

• 8 contestants have occupations that require an NQF level 7 and above
• 2 contestants are sales reps or salesman (they might or might not have qualifications
• 1 contestant is a world record jumper (assuming that's his profession)
• 1 contestant is a male travel nurse
• *I have excluded the students as they have not earned the qualification yet

In Africa — If you are a bachelorette and you come home with a world record jumper then you best believe your family will have some strong words for you.

Is that not the cause of Africa’s high unemployment rate?

We cannot all be doctors — An economy needs realtors to sell houses to the doctors, plumbers to check the drainage, electricians to move their houses to solar, travel nurses when they go on vacation, and world-record jumpers to entertain them.

An economy needs those who make the goods, deliver the goods, and use the goods.

If the definition of employment is changed from those who have qualifications and have gained employment to merely those who earn an income then the unemployment rate for South Africa will be much lower.

It will also motivate those who get a qualification and end up sitting at home, get off your chair — there are world records to chase and things to jump over.

South Africa is the most creative country in the world and it's time to harness that creativity to earn an income.