The number of employees in the nonagricultural sector of the South African economy has increased by 0.1% in the third quarter of 2015, according to a Statistics South Africa's (Stats SA’s) Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) survey.
The survey that about 8.95-million people were employed in South Africa's formal economy.
“This reflected a quarterly increase of 7 000 employees (0.1%) between June 2015 and September 2015 and a yearly increase of 4 000 employees between September 2014 and September 2015,” StatsSA said.
The quarterly increase was mainly owing to increases in employment reported by business services (12 000 or 0.6%); trade (10 000 or 0.5%) and community services (8 000 or 0.3%).
According to StatsSA, decreases were reported by industries including mining and quarrying (-12 000 or -2.5%), manufacturing (-5 000 or -0.4%); construction (-5 000 or -1.0%) and transport (-1 000 or -0.2%).
Gross earnings paid to employees in the formal sector during the third quarter ended amounted to R495-billion.
“This reflected a quarterly increase of R15.5-billion (3.2%) compared with the quarter ended June 2015 and an annual increase of R30.8-billion, or 6.6%, compared with the quarter ended September 2014,” StatsSA said.
The QES survey showed that an estimated monthly average of R17 387 was paid to employees in August.
This reflected a quarterly increase of 3.5% between May 2015 and August 2015 and a yearly increase of 6.2% between August 2014 and August 2015.