South Africa’s formal, non-agricultural industries shed 119 000 jobs in the second quarter (Q2), down from 10 067 000 in March 2022 to 9 948 000 in June 2022, led largely by employment losses in the community services, business services and construction industries.
Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) Report shows that employment in the community services industry dropped by 100 000 jobs, followed by businesses services which saw a decrease of 15 000 and construction which reported an employment drop of 13 000.
Manufacturing had 12 000 less jobs, while the electricity industry lost 1 000 jobs in Q2.
Year on year, employment in the country only grew by 0.7 percent, a gain of 74 000 jobs between June 2021 and June 2022.
This is a slightly different picture to the one painted by the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the period between April and June which reported an improvement in unemployment to 33,9 percent in Q2 of 2022, from 34,5 percent in Q1, a gain of 648 000 more jobs.
Unlike the latest QLFS – which is a survey of households that collects data on the labour activities of individuals – the QES is an enterprise-based survey which collects data from non-agricultural businesses and organisations in the formal economy.
There were 16 000 less jobs in Q2 between the period of March 2022 and June 2022, decreasing total employment in this category to 8 826 000 in June 2022. – Moneyweb