Jobless rate improves as social services sector hires 73,000 more people
However, two of Statistics SA’s 10 sectors reported declines in job numbers — mining and construction — in the fourth quarter
SA’s high unemployment rate is likely to worsen in future even though the unemployment rate declined unexpectedly during the last quarter of 2016, Statistics SA boss Pali Lehohla said on Tuesday. The unemployment rate dipped in the last quarter of 2016 after the number of job seekers fell by 92,000, Statistics SA said on Tuesday. The private sector was the largest contributor to the 235,000 jobs created during the fourth quarter while government jobs accounted for about one-third. This resulted in the unemployment rate slipping to 26.5%. But this is still two percentage points higher than the fourth quarter of 2015. This beat the Trading Economics expectation of a rise in the unemployment rate to 27.3% and the Bloomberg consensus for 27%. Unemployment had risen to 27.1% in the third quarter. The growth in employment was driven mainly by the services industry, which grew by 73,000 jobs. Transport and manufacturing created 46,000 and 44,000 jobs, respectively. Presenting the Stats SA ...
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