South Africa’s jobs bloodbath continues – these are the workers most affected

JOBS in the formal non-agricultural sector decreased by 9,000 in the first quarter of 2021, the Q1 Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) from StatsSA shows.

This brings the total number of persons employed in the formal non-agricultural sector in South Africa to approximately 9.64 million.

In a microcosm, this drop is not as significant as previous quarters, but it should be read alongside other economic data which shows that the country has continued to haemorrhage jobs over the last year.

The year-on-year figures from the Quarterly Employment Statistics survey, released by Stats SA show that formal sector jobs decreased by 552,000 in the first quarter.

The jobs that were cut 

While total employment decreased by 9,000 or (-0.1%) quarter-on-quarter, the data shows that some sectors were hit significantly harder than others.

The trade and business services industries shed 40,000 and 19,000 jobs respectively, while construction (-5,000), and electricity (-1,000) also