Job creation in South Africa –

Job creation in South Africa – two steps forward, one step back

South Africa, beset by massive long-term unemployment, has added a mere 1,000 non-farm private-sector jobs in the last quarter

Job creation in South Africa –

rebellion_of_the_poor_jpegs025

The release of Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) this week shows in hard fact what many South Africans feel in their budgeting, their shopping and in their cities and rural areas: job creation is flatlining. In the same period in which growth slowed to a four-year low, South Africa produced only 1,000 non-farm private-sector jobs overall. The survey’s results were grimmer than expected partly because the Employment Survey is based on in-depth interviews with private sector managers, as opposed to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which includes farm jobs.

The QES points towards a particularly grim financial 2012-3 in which manufacturing contracted, construction growth remained muted and job growth was lacklustre, with the only new hiring being done by the public sector. Total employment remains below South Africa’s peak leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, while the country has added just 1 160 jobs per month on average over the last 12 months.

Economists are in consensus that continuing weak economic growth is the main reason for the shedding of jobs in production and the minimal growth in service-sector jobs. None of this is likely to improve as South Africa prepares for what might well be the most consequential election since democracy in 1994.

Read more: 

South African Rand falls to new low

South Africa’s black middle class has doubled in last decade

Govt says SA is addressing issues raised in Fitch review