AEI November 2011 

Salient features

• Employment was essentially unchanged in October, with formal, informal, permanent and temporary jobs recording statistically insignificant changes.
• Employment dropped slightly in the mining (-7.8%), construction (-7.0%) and manufacturing (-4.5%) sectors on an annualized basis. These losses were offset by employment gains in wholesale and retail trade (+4.4%) and financial services (+3.0%). For the first time this year, government job creation
  was essentially static.
• Reflecting good underlying conditions in the consumer sectors, employment of clerks (+3.3%) and service workers (+2.7%) grew steadily, as did domestic work (+5.8%).
• South Africa’s labour productivity – a leading indicator of job creation – has fallen to the lowest level in 40 years. For 2011 to date, labour productivity growth has been negative, which suggests that adding more workers will not yet translate into material increases in business output. We do not
  expect that a sustained increase in employment will occur until at least the second half of 2012.

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