There was a slight uptick in employment figures for the third quarter, following a decline in the preceding period.
The September 2016 QES survey from Statistics SA shows that an estimated 9 282 000 people were employed in the formal non-agricultural sector of the South African economy.
This reflected a net quarterly increase of 93 000 employees (1%) between June 2016 and September 2016 following a revised decrease of 96 000 employees (-1%) between March 2016 and June 2016.
There was an annual increase of 80 000 employees (+0,9%) between the third quarter of 2016 and the same quarter of the previous year.
Increases in employment were led by community services industry with 78 000 employees, trade industry with 7 000 employees, construction and business services industry with 6 000 employees, and mining industry with 2 000 employees.
However, there were decreases in employment reported by manufacturing and transport industries with 3 000 employees each.
The electricity industry remained unchanged for the quarter.
Total earnings paid to employees amounted to R543-billion in September 2016. This is a quarterly increase of R20-billion or 3,9%. There was an annual increase of R34-billion (6,7%) in September 2016 compared with the same quarter of the previous year.
And increase in gross earnings were led by business services industry with R9,7-billion quarter-to-quarter, followed by community service industry with R3,4-billion, trade industry with R2,8-billion, manufacturing industry with R1,9-billion, electricity industry with R1,8-billion, mining industry with R979-million and finally construction industry with R680-million.
There was a quarter-to-quarter decrease in transport services industry by R754-million.
There was a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0,1% in average monthly earnings paid to employees in the formal non-agricultural sector from R18 077 in May 2016 to R18 104 in August 2016.
On an annual basis, average monthly earnings paid to employees increased by 4,4% from R17 344 in August 2015 to R18 104 in August 2016.