Thursday, September 27, 2007

More jobs, and salaries rise — but only by a bit


Robert Laing Published:Sep 27, 2007

Employment and salaries both went up in the second quarter, but not enough to make much difference to the country’s jobless rate, Statistics South Africa data released yesterday showed.
Employment rose by 53000 jobs to 8.3-million people. They earned R211-billion in the three months from April to June, Stats SA’s quarterly employment report said.

This equates to an average monthly salary of R8486, a 2.3percent increase from the first quarter. The average salary in May was R8093, compared to R7870 in February. Stats SA also released its biannual Labour Force Survey yesterday. It showed a fractional improvement in the country’s unemployment rate in March.

Unemployment dropped to 25.5percent, from 25.6percent in March last year. Stats SA splits the economy into eight sectors. South Africa’s consumer boom led to the “trade” sector creating nearly half of the new jobs during the quarter. Trade is South Africa’s third- largest employer, accounting for 14percent of formal-sector jobs.

Services, the biggest employer, at 28percent, created only 1000 jobs.

Finance, the second-biggest employer, at 27percent, hired 15000 more people. The commodities boom led to the mines hiring 9000 more people, but mining accounts for only 5percent of the employment pie. The only sector to report a drop in jobs from March to June was “transport, storage and communications”, which shed 4000.

Data from the quarterly employment statistics show that the best-paid jobs are in the “electricity, gas and water” sector.

This is the smallest employer, with only 54000, or 1percent, of the country’s jobs. It pays an average salary of R14975 a month.

The worst-paid jobs are in construction, where theaverage salary is only R5407 a month.



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