95 000 JOBS LOST

STATISTICS South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey confirmed that 95 000 jobs were lost since March.

Yesterday's latest report showed that the hardest hit economic sectors were construction, mining, community services, and trade.

A surprise in the figures was a net gain of 2 000 in jobs in the manufacturing sector, which has been a declining sector for several year. 

Employment in the transport industry remain unchanged.

The troubling results also showed that total wage earnings dropped by R47.3 billion (4.6% down).

Dr Elna Moolman, Standard Bank Group head of South Africa Macroeconomic Research added that there was “such severe pressure on bonus payments that total income didn't even keep pace with low inflation”

Moolman said there was a decline in government employment and also relatively broad-based declines in the private sector.

She explained: “Part of the weakness in the economy in the first quarter of the year is of course attributable to severe political and policy uncertainty both globally and domestically, and this unfortunately hardly improved in the second quarter of the year. 

“We are looking for some improvement in the economy in the second half of the year, and that should be followed by a recovery in the labour market in due course.”