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Johannesburg - After dropping 0.13% in December, employment in SA improved by an annualised 0.9% in January, the latest Adcorp Employment Index released on Thursday revealed.
The index is regarded as a barometer of employment trends in SA.
All employment types reported increases, but the biggest were in temporary employment, up by 2.5%, and agency employment, which was up 4.8%.
Adcorp said that employment remained patchy and the increase in employment was in the government, where the number of employed rose by 8.8% on an annualised basis.
The construction sector continued to struggle, experiencing significant job losses. It showed a drop of 6.6%.
There were moderate job losses in the financial services and wholesale and retail trade sectors, where employment fell by 3.7% and 3.6% respectively.
Adcorp CEO Richard Pike said highly skilled workers, including managers and professionals, showed an increase of 5.9% and reflected the economy's demand for skills.
In January, the index included a survey on employment in the informal sector.
Adcorp said it estimated that about 6.19 million people worked in this sector, which included unrecorded and, in some cases, illegal transactions such as employment of unregistered foreigners.
The survey is in line with data from Statistics SA, which said this week that unemployment dropped in the fourth quarter of 2010 as at least 157 000 more jobs were created.
In the same period, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.3 percentage points to 24%, Stats SA said on Tuesday. The unemployment rate was at 25.3% in the previous quarter.
The index is regarded as a barometer of employment trends in SA.
All employment types reported increases, but the biggest were in temporary employment, up by 2.5%, and agency employment, which was up 4.8%.
Adcorp said that employment remained patchy and the increase in employment was in the government, where the number of employed rose by 8.8% on an annualised basis.
The construction sector continued to struggle, experiencing significant job losses. It showed a drop of 6.6%.
There were moderate job losses in the financial services and wholesale and retail trade sectors, where employment fell by 3.7% and 3.6% respectively.
Adcorp CEO Richard Pike said highly skilled workers, including managers and professionals, showed an increase of 5.9% and reflected the economy's demand for skills.
In January, the index included a survey on employment in the informal sector.
Adcorp said it estimated that about 6.19 million people worked in this sector, which included unrecorded and, in some cases, illegal transactions such as employment of unregistered foreigners.
The survey is in line with data from Statistics SA, which said this week that unemployment dropped in the fourth quarter of 2010 as at least 157 000 more jobs were created.
In the same period, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.3 percentage points to 24%, Stats SA said on Tuesday. The unemployment rate was at 25.3% in the previous quarter.
