Quarterly Labour Force Survey: Quarter 3 (July to September), 2010

Introduction

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) is a household-based sample survey that collects information on employment, unemployment and inactivity for people aged 15 years and above. The results for the QLFS are given for people aged 15 to 64 years who are referred to as the population of working age. The reference period for data collection is the first two weeks of every month in a quarter.

These results are based on the recent population estimates that were published in July of this year. This, therefore, means that all the previously published results have been revised to align them to the new population estimates.

Quarter on quarter

Employment

The results show that employment contracted by 0,7% or 86 000 jobs between the 2nd and the 3rd quarter of 2010. The unemployment rate in this period remained virtually unchanged at 25,3% while the number of discouraged workseekers went up by 4,9% or 95 000 people.

When looking at employment by sector, formal sector employment contracted by 0,5% or 45 000 jobs and informal sector employment went down by 0,6% or 14 000 jobs, Agriculture went up by 1,6% or 10 000 jobs, and employment in Private households declined by 3,3% or 38 000 jobs.

The loss of jobs in the formal sector was observed mainly in establishments that employ less than 50 people (see Table 1 below). It seems big establishments that employ more than 50 people were able to generate new jobs in the third quarter of 2010.

Table 1: Employment in the formal sector by size of establishment (employees only)

The job losses in the formal sector were driven largely by Finance and other business services where employment contracted by 5,7% or 89 000 jobs. However, job gains were observed in Trade where employment went up by 34 000 jobs (1,8%), Construction up by 30 000 (4,1%) and Manufacturing up by 22 000 or 1,5% (see figure 1 below).

In provinces, the biggest job losses were observed in Limpopo with a decline in employment of 4,4% or 42 000 jobs and Western Cape contracted by 2,2% or 39 000 jobs. Eastern Cape and Northern Cape gained jobs in the third quarter of 2010 with employment going up by 2,5% or 32 000 jobs in the Eastern Cape and by 6,2% or 16 000 jobs in the Northern Cape.

The year on year picture shows that employment contracted by 1,2% or 158 000 jobs.

Unemployment

The levels of the unemployed hardly moved from quarter-to-quarter and resulted in a virtually unchanged unemployment rate of 25,3% up by only 0,1 of a percentage point from what it was in the 2nd quarter of 2010. While the unemployment rate remains almost unchanged, the levels of unemployment in South Africa remain high at approximately 4,4 million.

The highest unemployment rate was observed in Free State at 29,5%. The provinces that had an unemployment rate that was lower than the national average were KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Limpopo with 19,7%, 23,1% and 25,1% respectively (see figure 2 below).

The expanded unemployment rate in the 3rd quarter of 2010 went up by 0,8 of a percentage point from 35,8% to 36,6%. The provinces with the highest expanded unemployment rate were Limpopo at 45,6% followed by Mpumalanga with 43,9% and North West with 42,5%. The lowest expanded unemployment rate was observed in Western Cape at 25,5%.

Year-on-year, the number of unemployed persons increased by 155 000 resulting in an unemployment rate of 25,3% – up by 0,9 of a percentage point from 24,4% in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

For media enquiries contact:

Ms Kefiloe Masiteng
Deputy Director General: Population and Social Statistics
Tel: 012 310 2109

For technical enquiries contact:

Mr Peter Buwembo
Acting Executive Manager: Labour Statistics
Tel: 012 310 8655