SA unemployment edges upwards

635 03.02.2015 A group of man seat on a shade in the hot sunny day while other one read newspaper, at corner of railway street and Church Street in Mayfair. They seat at the same corner everyday waiting for a construction company or an individual person who have a piece jobs for them. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

635 03.02.2015 A group of man seat on a shade in the hot sunny day while other one read newspaper, at corner of railway street and Church Street in Mayfair. They seat at the same corner everyday waiting for a construction company or an individual person who have a piece jobs for them. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

Published May 26, 2015

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Johannesburg - The South African unemployment rate edged slightly upwards from 24,3% in the last quarter of last year to 26, 4% in the first quarter of this year, as the numbers of the unemployed rose faster than new jobs created, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey released on Tuesday by Stats SA, revealed.

More worryingly, the formal non agricultural sector, a key source of employment creating, shed 115 000 jobs over the first quarter of this year.

The number of employed people grew by 140,000 people between the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year from 15,3 million to 15, 4 million.

But over the same period, the ranks of the unemployed grew by 626 000 from 4,9 million to 5,5 million.

Over the year from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year, the number of employed people grew by 405 000 from 15 million. The number of unemployed grew by 468 000, following a slight dip to below 5 million between the third and fourth quarter of last year.

Last week, the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee conducted its meeting and decided on interest rates without having sight of the survey, a development that they described as less than ideal. The committee said it used other indicators, such as manufacturing capacity utilisation to assess the state of employment in the country.

A worrisome feature of the findings is the formal non agricultural sector shedding 115 000 jobs to 10,8 million people. Over the quarter this was masked by the agricultural sector, which created 150 000 jobs to employ 891 000 people. Agriculture is an unreliable source of employment as it is seasonal and erratic. That is why it is isolated form the rest of the formal sector.

ANA

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