JOHANNESBURG - The South African economy shed a further 267,000 jobs between the first and second quarters of 2009. This is according to the recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday. The survey found that, in that period, 93,000 jobs had been lost in the formal sector, 41,000 in the informal sector, 28,000 in agriculture, and 105,000 from private households.
The unemployment rate increased only slightly - from 23,48% to 23,58%. This was because of a massive - 302,000 - increase in the number of discouraged job seekers. Over the past two quarters the South African economy has shed close to half a million jobs (475,000.)
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Table: Key findings of latest Labour Force Survey |
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|
Jan-Mar 2008 |
April-June 2008 |
Oct-Dec 2008 |
Jan-Mar 2009 |
April-June 2009 |
Qrt to Qrt change |
Year-on-year change |
|
|
Thousand |
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|
Population 15-64 yrs |
30608 |
30705 |
30894 |
30987 |
31080 |
93 |
375 |
|
Labour force |
17814 |
17844 |
17718 |
17820 |
17495 |
-325 |
-349 |
|
Employed |
13623 |
13729 |
13844 |
13636 |
13369 |
-267 |
-360 |
|
Formal sector (Non-agricultural) |
9342 |
9415 |
9537 |
9449 |
9356 |
-93 |
-59 |
|
Informal sector (Non-agricultural) |
2319 |
2340 |
2246 |
2150 |
2109 |
-41 |
-231 |
|
Agriculture |
799 |
790 |
764 |
738 |
710 |
-28 |
-80 |
|
Private households |
1163 |
1185 |
1298 |
1299 |
1194 |
-105 |
9 |
|
Unemployed |
4191 |
4114 |
3873 |
4184 |
4125 |
-59 |
11 |
|
Not economically active |
12794 |
12861 |
13176 |
13166 |
13585 |
419 |
724 |
|
Discouraged work-seekers |
1177 |
1079 |
1168 |
1215 |
1517 |
302 |
438 |
|
Other (not economically active) |
11617 |
11783 |
12008 |
11951 |
12068 |
117 |
285 |
|
Unemployment rate |
23.53% |
23.06% |
21.86% |
23.48% |
23.58% |
0.10% |
0.52% |
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Source: Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2 2009 |
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