The second quarter of 2016 saw a decline in jobs of 129,000 compared to the previous quarter, according to the latest quarterly labour force survey released by Statistics SA on Thursday.
The decline was mainly due to losses in the services (127,000), agriculture (44,000), transport (39,000) and mining (24,000) sectors. More people gave up looking for work. Unemployment SA remained high in the second quarter of 2016 — falling just 0.1 of a percentage point to 26.6%. That meant 5.6-million people were unemployed. The expanded unemployment rate, which takes into account people who have given up actively looking for work, increased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 36.4% in the second quarter. Statistician-general Pali Lehohla said the latest jobs data pointed to the difficult economic situation facing SA.
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