Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) revealed that employment in the formal non-agricultural sector decreased by 119,000 during the second quarter of 2022. This was according to the quarter two Quarterly Employment Statistics.
While these jobs were lost from the first quarter of 2022, the year on year change indicates that 74,000 jobs were gained between June 2021 and June 2022. The decline in employment resulted in the total employment decline to 9,948 Million in June 2022 from just 10 Million jobs in March.
Job losses were recorded in the community services (-100,000), business services (-15,000), construction (-13,000), manufacturing (-12,000) and electricity (-1,000) industries. There were increases in the amount of jobs in the trade (+17,000), mining (+4,000) and transport (+1,000) industries.
Earlier this month, the Stats SA released the Quarterly Labour Force Survey which indicated that the country's unemployment rate decreased from 34.5% in the first quarter to 33.9% in the second quarter.
This has caused some confusion as the labour force survey indicated that unemployment was being reduced while the employment survey indicates it is worsening.
Stats SA’s Matlapane Masupye explained that Quarterly Employment Statistics are different from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey because it collects data from businesses and not from households.
The statistics also showed that the average monthly earnings paid to employees in the formal non-agricultural sector increased by 4%.
A sharp increase in average monthly earnings was observed between the first and second quarter of 3,7% between February and May.
