SA's non-agriculture jobs decrease

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Pretoria - Employment in the formal non-agricultural business sector decreased between the end of March to the end of June 2009, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) announced on Tuesday.

"The June 2009 Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) survey showed that the number of people employed in the formal non-agricultural business sector of the South African economy decreased by about 67 000 persons from March 2009 to June 2009," said Stats SA.

In March, the figure stood at an estimated 8 326 000 employees to an estimated 8 259 000 employees in June.

Additionally gross earnings that were paid to employees in the formal non-agricultural business sector increased between the March and June quarter.

Gross earnings that were paid to workers during the quarter ending in June, came in at R259 652 million reflecting a quarterly increase of R429 million compared to the March quarter.

Gross earnings paid to workers in the formal non-agricultural business sector increased between the quarters ended March 2008 and March this year. The increase between the two quarters reflected an increase of R15 631 million.

According to Stats SA, employment in the same sector decreased between the quarters ended June 2008 and June 2009.

"An estimated 8 259 000 people were employed in this sector reflecting an annual decrease of about 198 000 employees compared to June 2008 at an estimated 8 457 000 employees," the survey revealed.

The quarterly survey found that the average monthly earnings that include bonuses and overtime payment paid to employees in this sector increased between February and May 2009.

"This reflected a quarterly increase of 1.2 percent in average monthly earnings and on an annual basis, this revealed an increase of 6.4 percent in average monthly earnings," Stats SA stated.