IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

More bad news looms for job-seekers as the formal non-agricultural sector of the economy reported a decline of 34 000 jobs for the quarter ended June 2017. This is according to the latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) report released by Statistics South Africa. The QES data tracks changes in employment at the establishment level, and thus provide a picture of aggregate employment growth statistics.

There was a decline in employment in both the March 2017 and June 2017 quarters. The QES recorded consecutive losses of 41 000 jobs and 34 000 jobs over the last two quarters, respectively.

The manufacturing industry reported the highest job loss of 13 000 employees. This was followed by losses in the construction industry with 11 000 jobs, the community and social services industry with 10 000 jobs, the transport and communication industry with 5 000 jobs and the business services industry with 1 000 jobs.

However, the mining industry created 3 000 jobs in the quarter ended June 2017. This is the second quarter in succession where jobs were created in the mining industry. The trade industry made a recovery of 3 000 jobs in the current quarter from a decline of 30 000 jobs in March 2017. Job levels in the electricity industry remained unchanged.

Gross earnings for the quarter ended June 2017 continued on a downward trend with a decline by R2,3 billion. This follows a decline of R19,5 billion in the previous quarter. The total amount of gross earnings measured for the quarter was R585 billion. This is down from R587 billion.

The decline in earnings was driven by the business services industry with a quarter-on-quarter decrease of R13,6 billion. This follows three successive quarters of positive growth in earnings. Despite the overall decline, earnings in the mining sector increased by R182 million, manufacturing increased by R144 million, electricity increased by R44 million, construction increased by R469 million, trade increased by R970 million, transport increased by R1,8 billion and community services increased by R7,4 billion.

Average monthly earnings were measured at R18 666 in the formal non-agricultural sector of the economy for the June 2017 quarter. This is an increase of 1,7% from the previous quarter and an increase of 1,4% from the same quarter in 2016.

The full report is available here.