Youth unemployment remains one of the most pressing challenges in the country. The global economic crisis impacted negatively, particularly on the youth within the 18 – 24 age cohort. Youth employment declined by 17,4% versus overall decline of employment of approximately 8% in the period under review. In response, government proposed a youth employment subsidy during the 2010 Budget. This is part of a multi-pronged approach to addressing youth unemployment and includes aspects such as entrepreneurship development, training programmes and employment services to improve job searching and matching. In order to reduce the rate of unemployment and grow the economy, government continues to implement key policy initiatives. The 2007 National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF) sets out the government’s broad approach to industrialisation and identifies priority sectors to promote the growth of a strong local industrial and services economy. Government launched the Industrial Policy Action Plan II (IPAP II)7 in February 2010 as a NIPF acceleration mechanism. The IPAP II has identified four lead sectors to fast-track its implementation, namely: capital and transport equipment and metal fabrication; automotives and components; plastic fabrication and pharmaceuticals, as well as forestry, pulp and paper and furniture. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Tourism were also identified as priority sectors to grow the economy. In the clothing and textile sector, 32 companies had accessed R434 million by April 2010 as part of implementing IPAP II. In 2009, rebate certificates with a deemed value of just over R5 billion for quantifying products were issued in the automotive sector. In the 2010 financial year the uptake for investment support in the automotive sector was R 1.1 billion. These measures will go a long way to reverse the 25 000 jobs lost since the start of the recession. As of July 2010, figures to date indicate that 1 196 jobs have been created since the beginning of the 2010 financial year in the automotive sector. Funds have also been allocated for the film, tourism and BPO subsectors as a result of this initiative. This played a significant role in ensuring that 5 693 jobs were created in the BPO subsector between April and September 2009. Government continues with the implementation of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). This is a government-wide intervention aimed at creating employment opportunities for the poor and vulnerable through the utilisation of public sector expenditure. Given that most of the unemployed are unskilled, the emphasis is on relatively unskilled work opportunities. Training, education or skills development are integral to the EPWP, with the aim of increasing the ability of people to earn an income once they leave the programme. Public bodies from all spheres of government and the non-state sector (supported by government incentives), are expected to deliberately optimise the creation of work opportunities through the delivery of public and community services. The EPWP creates employment opportunities in the following ways: 7 IPAP I was implemented in 2007 as a three year programme. This has been updated and significantly expanded to produce IPAP II, which was launched in 2010. 32