75 000 non-agriculture jobs created in third quarter

The national statistical service released the quarterly employment survey on Tuesday.  

The survey shows data between June and September 2020. 

The data shows that trade, community services, construction and manufacturing contributed to the increase on a quarter-to-quarter basis.  

Full-time employment increased by 0.5% during that quarter, while part-time employment increased by 3.1% during the same period. 

Econometrix economist Azar Jammine says formal employment lost in the second quarter was harder to regain in the third quarter compared to informal employment. 

“In the quarterly labour force survey released we saw a significant loss of jobs in the second quarter when the economy was heavily locked down, to the order of 2.2 million and 1.2 million of those were jobs lost in the formal sector. 

“In the quarterly employment survey, which is conducted among formal sector businesses and therefore really reflects formal sector employment, you hade a loss of 690 000 in the second quarter and that’s almost half the number reflected in the quarterly labour force survey,” says Jammine.  

“Job losses in the formal sector were probably less than in the informal sector and among household workers but at the same time the recovery has been much less after the lockdown have been lifted.” 

On a year-on-year basis, the South African economy shed more than 600 000 jobs. 

“What the figures suggest is that people should not rely finding employment as a means of having a job; they should try, if possible, to create employment of their own and it’s a far more certain way of ensuring their survival than relying on handouts by the government or even looking for jobs in the formal sector,” Jammine explains.  

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