BL Premium reports that SA’s jobs growth defied expectations in the second quarter, bringing the unemployment rate a step closer to pre-pandemic levels.

The easing of Covid-19 restrictions sparked a bout of hiring by employers looking to serve consumers who were eating out, shopping and travelling more. The figures released by Stats SA on Tuesday came as a surprise given that the economy was broadly expected to have performed poorly in the second quarter due to the KwaZulu-Natal flooding, as well as intense load-shedding and depressed business confidence. The quarterly labour force survey showed that the economy created 647,651 jobs in the three months to end-June, resulting in the official unemployment rate falling to 33.9% from 34.5% in the first quarter. The total number of persons employed was 15.6 million in the second quarter, while the number of unemployed persons reached 8 million. The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, fell from 45.5% in the first quarter to 44.1% in the second. Restaurants, retailers, hotels and car dealerships were among the biggest recruiters in the three months to end-June. While there were job losses in manufacturing (-73,000) and transport (-54,000), job gains were seen in community and social services (+276,000), trade (+169,000), finance (+128,000) and construction (+104,000). But even with the positive numbers, SA’s unemployment rate remains above pre-pandemic levels and continues to be unsustainably high.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thuletho Zwane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
• Read too, SA adds more jobs in second quarter despite load shedding, floods, at Fin24

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page