The Quarterly Employment Statistics Survey released by Statistics South Africa indicates that jobs in the formal non-agricultural sector increased by 75 000 in the third quarter of 2020. This brings the total number of persons employed in the formal non-agricultural sector in South Africa to approximately 9.6 million.
The employment gains were mainly due to increases in employment in the trade, community service, construction, and manufacturing industries.
The survey shows that job losses were seen in all industries, pointing to a decrease of 616 000 employees in September 2020 compared with September 2019.
The Quarterly Employment Survey is an enterprise-based survey that collects information from non-agricultural businesses from approximately 20 000 units.
It is different from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey which collects individual’s labour market activities from approximately 30 000 households.
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey:
