Pretoria – South Africa’s employment rate declined by 2.2% or 355 000 in the first quarter of 2016, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on Monday.
This combined with an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 521 000 resulted in an unemployment rate of 26.7%, which was 2.2 percentage points higher compared to the fourth quarter of 2015.
The report however, pointed that on a year-on-year basis, employment was still higher in the first quarter of 2016 by 204 000, compared to the same period last year.
This is according to Statistician General, Pali Lehohla, who released the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) of the first quarter results of 2016.
There are 36.4 million working aged people – between 15-64 years old - in South Africa.
Out of the 21.4 million people in labour force, 15.7 million are employed, 5.7 million are unemployed and 15.1 million are not economically active.
The Labour Force Survey noted a decline in employment levels in all industries during quarter-to-quarter, except community and social services and agriculture, which grew by 51 000 and 16 000 respectively.
“The biggest job losses were observed in trade with 119 000 job losses, manufacturing 100 000 and 77 000 in construction,” said Lehohla.
Despite the quarterly increase, employment in agriculture was lower by 15 000 compared to a year ago.
The opposite pattern was observed in mining, construction, trade and finance and other business services.
“While employment declined quarter-to-quarter in these industries, employment levels increased on an annual basis in mining (30 000), construction (40 000), trade (115 000) and by 23 000 in finance and other businesses services.
“Community and social services grew both quarter-to quarter and year-on-year, while manufacturing declined on both quarter-to-quarter (100 000) and year-on-year (141 000),” the report noted.
The expanded unemployment rate which includes those who were available to work but did not look for work in the reference period also increased by 2.5 percentage points between fourth quarter of 2015 and first quarter of 2016 to 36.3%.
On youth labour market, the indicators show that young people continue to be vulnerable group with only 31.1% of youth employed, with an unemployment rate of 37.7%.
The employment of persons by occupation and population group shows that among Black and Coloured population groups, large proportions were employed in elementary and domestic worker occupants, compared to other population groups.
Among Indians /Asians and White populations, large proportions are employed in managerial, professional, technician and clerical occupations.
White and Indian/Asian population groups dominate employment in skilled occupations relative to the Black and Coloured population groups, irrespective of gender.
“In order to realise its demographic dividend, South Africa needs to create jobs at a similar rate to which the labour force is growing, and we need a skilful labour force,” said Lehohla.
The National Development Plan (NDP) targets employment at 24 million people by 2030. – SAnews.gov.za
