Review of Active Labour Market Programmes

Ulrike Britton from National Treasury presents a review of South Africa’s Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs): 43 major programmes across 16 departments, spending about R60.2bn in 2024/25. Because SA’s unemployment is structural and demand-constrained, it argues, supply-side interventions such as training and matching largely “re-order the queue” without creating net new jobs, whereas public employment programmes more effectively raise demand for unskilled labour. It calls for sharper targeting, coherent design, and monitoring that tracks real employment outcomes. Presented at the 2026 Public Economics Conference.