AEI January 2012 

Salient features

• Employment grew at an annual rate of 6.5% in December, representing 103,327 new jobs, the fastest rate of growth in nine months. All employment categories reported growth, the fastest being temporary work (+15.1%) and permanent jobs (+6.2%). Agency work lagged behind at +4.8%, possibly reflecting legislative and regulatory uncertainties regarding labour broking.
• The number of jobs in South Africa is still 850,000 below the peak reached before the 2009 recession.
• Since the recession, the economy has shed 1.56 million permanent jobs and created 0.71 million temporary jobs.
• Significant job growth was recorded in the distribution and logistics sector (+15.6%) and the financial services (+8.9%) and retail (+7.9%) sectors. No sectors reported a decline in employment.
• Job growth was fastest among low-skilled and semi-skilled job categories, notably service workers (+10.7%), clerks (+9.8%) and elementary occupations (+8.2%). This is the first time since the 2009 recession that employment growth has been observed in the entry-level occupations.
• This month we take a closer look at the supply of labour and several factors which influence the desire to work.

Download full report