APA-Pretoria (South Africa) The number of employed people in South Africa increased by 399,000 to 16.7 million between July and September 2023, up from around 16.3 million in the previous quarter.
According to latest figures from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), jobs in the financial sector rose by 237,000, followed by social services at 119,000 and agriculture at 61,000.
It, however, reported that jobs in manufacturing dropped by 50,000 while employment in the mining sector fell by 35,000.
Transport and utilities jobs were also down by 20,000 and 16,000, respectively, StatsSA added.
In the same quarter, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 72,000 to 7.8 million, Stats SA said.
The changes in employment and unemployment figures resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing by 0.7 percentage points from 32.6 percent in the period between April and June 2023 to 31.9 percent in the third quarter.
“The third quarter of 2023 results show that the total number of unemployed youths (15-34 years) decreased by 174,000 to 4.6 million, while there was an increase of 237,000 in the number of employed youths to 6 million,” StatsSA said.
Meanwhile, the decline in mining and manufacturing jobs were due to operational troubles at the state-owned rail network Transnet, which faces a US$6.8 billion debt burden plus US$300 million in losses and severe logistics constraints.
NM/jn/APA