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Employment edges up

Johannesburg - Employment grew by 2.5% in September, due mainly to a 4% rise in employment by temporary employment agencies and a 7.7% increase in employment in the unofficial economy, Adcorp said on Monday.

The firm is SA's largest diversified employment services company.

All other categories of employment were essentially unchanged, the group said.

Employment dropped sharply in the manufacturing (-16.7%), transportation and logistics (-9.0%) and construction (-4.6%) sectors, representing a loss of 25 000 jobs during the month. These losses were offset by employment gains in the government (+10.5%), finance (+8.2%) and wholesale and retail trade (+6.6%) sectors, Adcorp's employment index found.

Continuing a long-standing trend, employment of high-skilled and office workers grew by 8.8% (or 48 000 jobs) while employment of low and semi-skilled workers fell by 6.4% (or 26 000 jobs). 

Loane Sharp, Adcorp labour market analyst, said: "The size of the informal job sector has peaked at almost half that of officially recorded employment in SA. In September alone, this sector grew at an annual rate of 7.7%."

According to Sharp, the informal labour sector currently represented 32.8% of SA's potential workforce. For some 6.2 million people, informal work had become the second-largest part of the labour market.

"The largest still remains officially recorded employment - numbering some 12.7 million people," said Sharp, "yet SA's formal labour market is gradually decreasing."

 
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