Cape Town - South Africa’s total income derived from the manufacturing industry increased by 9.4% from 2011 to 2014, which amounts to a total of R2.2trn, said Statistician General Pali Lehohla on Monday.
Statistics SA has released reports on the performance of the manufacturing
and construction industries for the year 2014. The reports present information on income generated by enterprises in the sector, as well as profit margins, employment and expenditure.
Although income from manufacturing increased in the period, profit margins shrunk from 7% in 2011 to 4.4% in 2014 amid declining economic growth and activity.
Job losses of over 200 000
Employment in the sector also declined, from a high of 1.43 million people in 2005
to 1.19 million in 2014, representing a loss of 246 000 jobs. The biggest losses were
recorded in the textiles, clothing, leather and footwear industries (-91 000),
followed by food products and beverages (-52 000) and metals, metal products,
machinery and equipment (-30 000).
Jobs were created in the petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic industries
recording a growth of 20 000 positions.
Large enterprises were responsible for only 46.4% of employment
creation whereas small, medium and micro enterprises created 53.6% of jobs.
Cape Town recorded the largest income from the sale of goods and
services with 17.3% of the industry total (R366.2bn), followed by Johannesburg,
which represented 16.2% of the total (R342.bn), and Ekurhuleni at 12.7%
(R268.8bn).
Johannesburg, however, showed the highest rate of employment at 26.1%,
followed by Cape Town with 13.2% and then eThekwini at 13.1%.
The petroleum and chemical industries paid the highest average wages at R265 871 per annum, while textiles and clothing had the lowest average remuneration at R69 443 per annum.