SA's jobless figure grows

Johannesburg - Jobs in South Africa's formal business sector decreased by 79 000 people in the first quarter of 2010, official data showed on Tuesday.

Statistics SA reported on Tuesday employment numbers were down 242 000 between end-March 2009 and March 2010.

According to the data 8.08 million people were employed in the formal sector (excluding agriculture), at the end of the review period.

The figures painted a dismal picture compared with the previous quarter, when employment rose by 0.2%.

"That figure came as a bit of a shock to the market. This is indeed not a good number," said Freddie Mitchell, Efficient Group economist. "What we're seeing is jobless growth."

The decline was most pronounced in the retail sector, where about 40 000 jobs were slashed during the first quarter, following a sharp seasonal increase in the last three months of 2009.

The construction sector also employed 7 000 less people as World Cup related projects neared completion.

"The deterioration in first quarter formal employment figures come as no surprise to us, particularly given the poor figures in the Labour Force Survey earlier in the year," said Jeff Schultz, economist at Absa Capital.

"Although an improving economic climate should see the domestic labour market stabilise, we note the still heightened levels of scepticism among many employers with respect to the strength in the global and domestic economic upturns."

He said a recovery in South Africa's labour market during 2010 would be slow.

"The large number of wage settlements well in excess of inflation are also a concern for us and could hamper the extent to which many employers are able to take on new hires, in our view," said Schultz. 

Stats SA's data also showed a quarterly increase of 1.6% in average monthly earnings between November 2009 (R11 020) and February 2010 (R11 195).

 - I-Net Bridge & Sapa