Employment in South Africa increased by 10 000 quarter-on-quarter, between June and September 2022, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) revealed in the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) released on Thursday.

The 0.1% increase saw employment increase from 9 974 000 in June 2022 to 9 984 000 in September 2022.

The agency said the increase was largely due to increases in several industries.

These included business services (31 000 or 1.3%), trade (10 000 or 0.5%), construction (8 000 or 1.5%), mining (5 000 or 1.0%), transport (4 000 or 1.0%) and manufacturing (1 000 or 0.1%). The electricity industry reported no quarterly change.

However, said StatsSA, the community services industry reported a quarterly decrease of 49 000 employees or -1.7%.

Over this period, employment increased by 31 000 or 0.3% year-on-year between September 2021 and September 2022.

Over the four months, full-time employment increased by 36 000, from 8 837 000 in June 2022 to 8 873 000 in September 2022.

“This was largely due to increases in the following industries: business services (15 000 or 0.7%), trade (12 000 or 0.6%), mining (5 000 or 1.0%), transport (2 000 or 0.5%), community services (2 000 or 0.1%), and construction (1 000 or 0.2%). The electricity industry reported no quarterly change.

“However, the manufacturing industry reported a quarterly decrease of 1 000 employees or -0.1%,” said StatsSA.

Between September 2021 and September 2022, full-time employment decreased by 16 000 (-0.2%) year-on-year.

The agency said part-time employment decreased by 26 000 or (2.3%) quarter-on-quarter, from 1 137 000 in June 2022 to 1 111 000 in September 2022.

It said this was largely due to decreases in the following industries: community services (-51 000 or -9.5%) and trade (-2 000 or -0.9%). The electricity industry reported no quarterly change. However, there were increases in the following industries: business services (16 000 or 7.2%), construction (7 000 or 10.9%), transport (2 000 or 12.5%) and manufacturing (2 000 or 2.6%).

Part-time employment increased by 47 000 (4.4%) year-on-year between September 2021 and September 2022.

“Gross earnings paid to employees increased by R11.1 billion (1.4%) from R789.4 billion in June 2022 to R800.5 billion in September 2022.

“This was largely due to increases in the following industries: business services, mining, trade, manufacturing and electricity. However, there were decreases in the following industries: transport, construction and community services,” it said.

The year-on-year gross earnings increased by R17.5 billion (2.2%) between September 2021 and September 2022.

Over the reporting period, StatsSA said basic salary/wages paid to employees increased by R12.0 billion (1.7%) from R719.2 billion in June 2022 to R731,2 billion in September 2022. This was largely due to increases in the following industries: mining, trade, business services, community service, manufacturing, transport and electricity. However, the construction industry reported a quarterly decrease.

The year-on-year basic salary/wages increased by R17.8 billion or 2.5% between September 2021 and September 2022, the agency said.

Source: South African Government News Agency