While South Africa’s employment rate recorded marginal changes year-on-year for the quarter ended June, gross earnings paid to employees rose 9.1% year-on-year, Statistics South Africa’s latest survey showed on Tuesday.

The latest Quarterly Employment Statistics survey revealed that the number of people employed in the formal, nonagricultural sector reached 8.437-million as at June 30.

This represented a 0.3% contraction on the 8.46-million recorded during the prior quarter and a 0.1% increase on the 8.43-million recorded in the corresponding quarter the year before.

During the June quarter, the mining and quarrying sector recorded the highest comparative job losses year-on-year, declining by 4.3%, or 23 000 jobs, compared with the quarter ended June 2012.

Employment in the manufacturing and construction industries contracted by 0.3% and 0.9% year-on-year respectively, while the electricity, gas and water supply and the transport, storage and communication industries recorded a positive 1.6% and 0.8% rise in employment year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the gross earnings paid to employees in the quarter ended June 30 amounted to R384.3-billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.1%, or about R31-billion, from the R352.4-billion recorded in the June quarter of 2012, the survey showed.

Gross earnings for the quarter also reflected a quarterly increase of almost R7-billion, or 1.8%, on the R377.3-billion recorded in the quarter ended March 31.

Year-on-year, gross earnings paid to employees in the manufacturing, electricity, gas and water and construction industries increased 8.1%, 10.5% and 8.6% respectively, adding R3.56-billion, R513-million, and R1.2-billion respectively to each industry’s wage bill.

Gross earnings paid to employees in the mining and quarrying sector jumped R953-million, or 4.1%, year-on-year, while earnings in the transport, storage and communication industry increased 4.9% or R1.02-billion.

Between May 2012 and May 2013, the average monthly earnings paid to employees increased by 6.8%, from R13 573, to R14 498.