Job growth expected to remain weak
Nedbank economist Busisiwe Radebe warns creating jobs will continue to be difficult in 2017
Although the formal sector has added more jobs during the third quarter, after struggling to create employment for most of the year, experts are still not convinced that the positive results indicate a turnaround. This is so because the bulk of the 93,000 employees who were added during the third quarter were temporary workers hired for the local government elections in August. This once-off boost falls away in the fourth quarter, which is normally lifted by retail trade sales over Christmas and New Year. The weak economy resulted in the loss of 15,000 jobs in the first quarter and another 67,000 in the second quarter. But Jason Muscat, senior industry analyst at FNB, said although the retail sector, which has seen constrained consumer spending, could reflect growth in jobs over the fourth quarter, it was still expected to remain muted in growth when the data is published in early 2017. "The retail sector remains relatively weak. Our view is essentially for employment growth to be w...
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