Fin24 reports that employment in SA's non-agricultural formal sector dropped by 69,000 between March and June 2018, Statistics SA announced on Wednesday in its latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) bulletin.  

The QES results are based on a sample survey conducted by Stats SA and include ‘snapshot’ findings on employment in the non-agricultural formal sector.  The QES bulletin does not provide an official unemployment rate.  The data indicated that non-agricultural formal sector employment dropped from 9,817,000 in March 2018 to 9,748,000 in June 2018.  Among the sectors which exhibited decreases were community services (-67 000 or -2.5%); manufacturing (-13 000 or -1.1%); and mining and quarrying (-2 000 or -0.4%).  Increases were reported in trade (+7,000 or 0.3%); business services (+7,000 or 0.3%), and construction (+1,000 or 0.2%).  The decrease between March and June followed a quarter-on-quarter increase in the first quarter of 2018.  Stats SA reported in June that SA had added 56,000 jobs between December 2017 and March 2018.

• Read this report in full at Fin24
• Read too, SA's jobless rate ticks up in the second quarter, at BusinessLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page