Despite labour market gains, manufacturing & mining shed thousands of jobs in Q3
Mining was among the industries that led to job creation in the previous quarter but economic headwinds have seen some big mining houses battle to maintain jobs.
JOHANNESBURG - Despite massive gains in the labour market, manufacturing and mining has shed thousands of jobs in the third quarter.
Mining was among the industries that led to job creation in the previous quarter but economic headwinds have seen some big mining houses battle to maintain jobs.
Bottlenecks in the energy and logistics sectors have put pressure on mining, adding to the industry’s gradual decline.
While mining and manufacturing lost jobs – almost half a million - other jobs were created in the period through to September.
READ: [Labour market has clawed back losses seen during COVID-19 - Maluleke](http://Labour market has clawed back losses seen during covid-19 - maluleke)
Statistician-General at Stats SA Risenga Maluleke said that six of the 10 industries were positive.
“Finance has gained 237,000 jobs quarter-on-quarter. It is followed by community and social services at 119,000 jobs, agriculture 61,000 jobs. Construction, which has been depressed for quite some time, recovered with 53,000 jobs. These were the biggest contributors.”
Stats SA released the latest employment figures on Tuesday, with unemployment easing to 31.9%.
Maluleke said Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo recorded the largest decreases in unemployment.
“One of the things that we see in KwaZulu-Natal, for example, is that finance has gained about 83,000 jobs and community services gained 26,000 jobs and one of the things that we see in Limpopo is that generally in the past quarters, sectors that have not been creating employment in Limpopo have continued to create employment.”
