The Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), one of two surveys conducted by Statistics South Africa, on Friday showed that employment in the formal sector grew by 158,000 during 2018.
During the last three months of last year, employment grew by 87,000. The survey excluded data on agriculture and the informal economy.
This welcome trend follows the release last month of the more comprehensive Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), which covered all sectors of the economy, both formal and informal, and which also showed significant employment growth during 2018.
“This increase in jobs reflect in part growing investor confidence and a rise in foreign direct investment in the economy, pointing to the success of the President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to boost South Africa as a destination for investment.
The Presidential Investment Conference held in October last year attracted pledges of US$21 billion. Over the next four years, government will work with investors, local communities and organised labour to enable the pledged investment to take place and to help create additional jobs and economic opportunities,” Cabinet said on Friday.
Since the start of the Ramaphosa administration, the QLFS shows that total employment has grown to 16.5 million, with 1.5 million new jobs created in the five-year period.