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Fin24 reports that according to well-known economist Mike Schüssler, there has been an ongoing decline in the number of salary payments going through the SA banking system, which could point to retrenchments.
He was commenting on data from the latest BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index, released on Thursday. February was the eighth consecutive month of declining employees on the system, which for Schüssler was likely an indication that the current employment figures remained relatively lower than previous years. The total take-home salaries paid, as measured by BankservAfrica, declined by 9.1% in total nominal terms and on a year-on-year (y/y) basis in February. The data indicated that many people seemed to have "left" the system, particularly higher earners. The overall number of employees earning under R100,000 per month declined by 8.4% in February. Schüssler explained that "leaving the system" could happen in a number of ways, such as retrenchments or retirement, or perhaps payments were no longer going through the banking system. The index is not designed to measure employment numbers - as people can still get paid in cash or by cheque, or can make use of a system where employees' salaries do not show up as a salary but as a normal payment. Yet, to Schüssler, the index has shown a trend developing for some time now.
- Read the full original of Carin Smith’s report in the above regard at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page