News24 reports that in the secretariat report to its 10th national congress, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) notes that SA’s manufacturing sector has bled 400,000 jobs since March 2008.  

The report observes that the industry has never really recovered from the global financial crisis.  It notes that manufacturing grew very slowly from the first quarter in 2010 to the fourth quarter in 2012 – by an average of only 0.07% – and that from the first quarter of 2013 ‘growth’ slowed even more to an average of 0.03% per quarter.  Numsa says the composition of the manufacturing sector has also changed over time with the metals sector’s contribution declining over the past 10 years relative to other sectors.  As regard job losses, most have occurred in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Western Cape.

• Read this report by Liesl Peyper in full at Fin24

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