Johnathan Paoli
Stats SA released its third quarter employment statistics on Thursday, with the numbers showing a rise in employment in transport, trade and the mining sector.
Stats SA spokesperson Trevor Oosterwyk said employment in the formal non-agricultural sector increased by 31 000 in the third quarter of the year, bringing the level of employment to almost 10,2 million.
This aligns with the figures of the third quarter, which showed a 0.7% percent decline in unemployment.
Oosterwyk said that there was an increase in part-time employment between June and September in industries such as community services, trade, transport and business services, while at the same time, full-time employment decreased by 3,000 compared to the second quarter of the year.
Stats SA said that this decline was recorded in sectors such as construction, which employed 3,000 fewer people and manufacturing, which hired 4,000 fewer people.
However, year-on-year, employment has increased by 2.6%.
Overtime payments dropped by R408 million (-1,6%) to reach R25 billion in the third quarter of 2023. Declines were observed in trade, manufacturing, community services, electricity, and transport. Conversely, the business services and transport sectors experienced an uptick in overtime payments.
Oosterwyk said there was a 0,9% quarter-on-quarter rise in the average monthly earnings paid to employees in the formal non-agricultural sector, climbing from R25 866 in May 2023 to R26 086 in August 2023.
Compared to the previous year, Stats SA recorded the average monthly earnings paid to employees in the formal non-agricultural sector experiencing a growth of 4,7%.
This follows after Stats SA announced on Tuesday that economic activity declined by 0.2% in the three months through September, the first time this year that the economy has shrunk, due to the chronic energy and logistical crises.
While load shedding remains a pain for economic growth, the backlog at the Richards Bay, Durban and Cape Town ports has worsened pressure on industries, with economists forecasting that the year will end in mute economic activity, with threats of a technical recession.
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