AEI February 2011 

Salient features

• The Adcorp Employment Index rose slightly by an annualized 0.9% in January. All employment types reported increases, but the biggest increases were in temporary employment (2.5%) and agency employment (4.8%).
• Employment remains patchy and weak. All sectors reported declines in employment except for government, where employed rose by 8.8% on an annualized basis.
• Significant job losses occurred in the construction sector, where employment fell by 6.6%, and moderate job losses occurred in the financial services and wholesale and retail trade sectors, where employment fell by 3.7% and 3.6% respectively.
• Employment of high-skilled workers (notably managers and professionals) increased by 5.9%, reflecting the economy’s continued strong need for skills.
• In this month’s analysis, Adcorp concludes that the proposed labour law amendments will result in 1,056,912 job losses, and quite probably more when the full effects of declining labour intensity are considered.
• From January 2011 onwards, the Adcorp Employment Index includes the unofficial sector. The unofficial sector, which is not recognized by Statistics SA, numbers 6.19 million people according to Adcorp’s estimates. It includes unrecorded and, in some cases, illegal transactions such as employment of unregistered foreigners, evasion of income, payroll and other taxes, and other economic activity in the underground economy. Adcorp will continue to report on unofficial sector employment on a monthly basis.
• From January 2011 onwards, the Adcorp Employment Index will no longer include employment by province, due to difficulties associated with collecting the underlying data in a timeous and reliable fashion.

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