Stats SA: 56 000 jobs created in first quarter
Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) announced on
Tuesday that 56 000 jobs were created during the first quarter of the year.
Most of the jobs were created in community service, construction, manufacturing and the business service sector.
FNB senior economist Jason Muscat says there was very few jobs created in the private sector.
“If you look at the two sectors, which are essential government based utilities, community, social and personal services they grew by 6.3 and 6.9% respectively, which is well ahead on inflation.”
Muscat believes the pressure on the fiscus is likely to be maintained as the government recently settled the public sector wage negotiations above inflation, and will have to pay R30 billion more than it had budgeted for.
He adds that job creation in the second quarter is possible, but it won’t be by much.
“We were quite surprised to see that employment group of 56 000 jobs in the context of GDP contraction in the the 1st quarter, we expect to bounce back in the second quarter but whether or not that creates jobs remains uncertain.”
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