Business Times reports that employment in SA is almost back to pre-pandemic levels, but the manufacturing sector, faced with load-shedding, weak demand, rising costs and poor municipal services, continues to shed jobs.
Statistics SA reported that 16.3-million people were employed in the second quarter, the highest number since the first quarter of 2020, when 16.4-million were in employment. However, manufacturing lost jobs in the second quarter, shedding 96,000 quarter on quarter. The last time the sector grew employment was in the fourth quarter of last year. Gauteng, which employs a third of the 1.5-million people in manufacturing, lost 40,000 jobs compared with the first quarter of 2023. In the Western Cape, the second-biggest employer in manufacturing, 14,000 jobs were shed, while in KwaZulu-Natal where 345,000 are now employed, 17,000 people were cut. Limpopo was the only province to grow manufacturing jobs in the second quarter, from 56,000 in the first quarter to 76,000. The job losses are part of a longer-term decline in the sector, which has struggled in the face of global competition. Thami Moatshe of the Localisation Support Fund pointed out that the sector's contribution to GDP dropped from 24% in 1981 to 13.7% in 2022. “The challenge now is to provide local players and new entrants with the support they need to scale up and modernise production so they can meet local demand and be globally competitive,” Moatshe pointed out.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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