Parliament - Government plans to create about 500 000 job opportunities between now and December.
Delivering his maiden State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Wednesday, the President said South Africans must partner with government and business must act now to minimize the impact of the economic downturn on the most vulnerable.
He said the creation of decent work will be at the centre of government's economic policies.
"We are mindful of the need to link the social grants to jobs or economic activity in order to encourage self-reliance amongst the able-bodied," he said.
"The initial target of 1 million jobs has been achieved," Mr Zuma said. "The second phase of the program aims to create about 4 million job opportunities by 2014."
Mr Zuma said government would ensure that plans to spend R787 billion on infrastructure were properly implemented.
The Expanded Public Works Programme was the main instrument he cited for creating jobs.
The EPWP, which was launched in 2004, is one of many government programmes aimed at providing poverty and income relief through temporary work for the unemployed to carry out socially useful activities.
In February's budget, the government pledged to create more than 400,000 jobs a year in the medium term.
Since then, data has shown that Africa's largest economy contracted an annualized 6.4 percent in the first quarter, the most since the third quarter of 1984, while unemployment rose to 23.5 percent from 21.9 percent in the previous three months.
To address this, President Zuma also indicated that government will have to forge ahead to promote a more inclusive economy.
"In this regard, we will utilise state levers such as procurement, licensing and financial support to assist small medium enterprises as well as to promote the implementation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment and affirmative action policies," he said.
The implementation will be done in recognition of the need to correct the imbalances of the past.
In this light he said the transformation will be undertaken in support of women, youth and people with disabilities.
He said workers who were facing retrenchment would be kept on for a period and retrained to do other work.
In addition, companies in distress would be assisted by the Industrial Development Corporation, while government would bolster key industries in a "scaled up Policy Action Plan".
Apart from those industries already earmarked for support -- including the automobile, chemical, metal fabrication, tourism, clothing and textiles, and forestry sectors -- government would also turn its attention to services, light manufacturing and construction in a bid to create jobs.
"The creation of decent work will be at the centre of our economic policies, and influence our investment attraction and job-creation initiatives."
Touching on recession that the country is facing, President Zuma said neighbours should assist each other.
"Let there be no child who go to bed hungry because the parents are out of job."
"It is more important now than ever that we work in partnership on a common programme to respond to this crisis," he said.
