292,000 jobs lost y/y in Q4, dn 7.5% (3)

- SA Q4 09 unemployment rate 24.3% vs 24.5% Q3 
    Johannesburg, Feb 9 (I-Net Bridge) - South Africa’s unemployment rate decreased to 24.3% in the quarter ended December 2009 from 24.5% in the third quarter, Statistics SA data showed on Tuesday.
    Compared to Q4 2008, there was an annual decrease of 6.3% (870,000) in employment, an increase of 292,000 in the number of unemployed persons and an increase of 947,000 in the number of persons who are not economically active – 518,000 being discouraged work-seekers.
    The number of persons in the labour force increased slightly by 61,000 between Q3:2009 and Q4:2009. Employment also increased significantly by 89,000 between Q3:2009 and Q4:2009 with the formal sector creating 41,000 jobs, the informal sector creating 116 000; while Agriculture and Private households lost 38 000 and 31 000 jobs respectively in the same period.
     While there is a slight improvement in terms of job creation from Q3:2009, this did not translate to a big decrease in the number of unemployed persons (27,000), but rather a slight increase in the number of discouraged work- seekers (54 000).
     This resulted in the unemployment rate remaining virtually unchanged between Q3:2009 (24.5%) and Q4:2009 (24.3%).
      The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) indicates that between Q3:2009 and Q4:2009, 89 000 jobs were generated across all industries. Most of the job gains were in Finance, which accounted for 77,000 of the jobs gains, followed by Construction (28,000) and Trade (21,000). Job losses were experienced in Agriculture (38 000) and Private households (31,000).
     The year-on-year comparisons show that job losses were experienced in all industries except Finance and Utilities with Trade accounting for 291,000 of the job losses, followed by Manufacturing (202,000), Private households (163,000) and Agriculture (149,000).
     There were job gains in Finance (123,000) and Utilities (12,000) although there was an overall decline of 870,000 in employment between Q4:2008 and Q4:2009.
    The data further shows that between Q3:2009 and Q4:2009, there was a slight improvement in employment in most provinces except KwaZulu-Natal which lost 49,000 jobs and North West (which lost 3,000 jobs), while in Mpumalanga the situation remained virtually unchanged.
    Slight increases were observed in Northern Cape, Free State and Gauteng which accounted for 35,000, 32,000 and 30,000 job gains respectively.
    The year-on-year comparisons (Q4:2008 and Q4:2009) show that Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and North West were the hardest hit provinces in terms of job losses, with Gauteng recording 330,000 job losses, KwaZulu-Natal recording 222,000 job losses, and North West accounting for 109,000 of the 870,000 job losses.
   
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