A total of 108 826 new jobs were created in South Africa in March, an increase from the 24 000 jobs created in February and 80 000 jobs created in January, the latest Adcorp Employment Index showed on Tuesday.

This was the strongest monthly showing of job creation since the 2009 recession, with the index rising 6.8% year-on-year, Adcorp stated.

The strongest growth was in the temporary employment sector, which grew by 11.3% and permanent jobs, which grew by 9.2%. Growth in the informal sector was modest at 0.6%, while the only category to show a decline was agency work, which shed 3 098 jobs.

“Growth was strong across all employment categories with transport and logistics (15.2%), electricity and utilities (13.3%) and mining (12%) providing for the most growth,” Adcorp’s report said.

Meanwhile, the report also pointed to a growing trend in the significant decline in membership and income of the South African trade union movement since 2006.

“Trade unions have lost 129 424 members, which translated to a loss of R95.78-million a year in membership dues,” Adcorp labour market analyst Loane Sharp said in a statement.

Unions experienced a decline in membership numbers from about 3.5-million, to about 3.3-million, while union members’ participation in strikes had been low, with only 1.4% of members turning out for strikes since 2006.

Strike attendance was also variable, ranging from 0% to 8.8%, owing to various factors such as the goals, duration and time of year of the various strikes.

Further, unions also suffered variable membership by sector. For example, union membership in the mining sector saw membership as high as 80.7%, while in agriculture, only 4.4% of employees belonged to a union.

“Between 1995 and 2011, after inflation, remuneration in the nonagricultural sector had increased from R9 378 a month to R12 564 a month. In the 15 years since the Labour Relations Act was introduced, after inflation, wages increased by 28.8%,” Sharp said.

Sharp added that while unions have succeeded in wage negotiations, they have failed in the area of labour relations.

In 2010/11 the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration received 156 000 referrals, 62% of which were settled in favour of employees against employers. The Labour Court made 2 042 decisions last year, with only half in favour of employees. Both statistics revealed that workplace conflict was largely unchanged over the last ten years.

“If these figures are a guide, then on average 1.2% of the total South African workforce formally raised disputes in a given year and 0.7% were sufficiently convincing arguments that lead to settlements in their favour,” Sharp said.

Sharp added that the rising incidence of industrial action was not symptomatic of genuine employer/employee conflict, but rather a response to gradually declining union membership and lower worker participation in strikes.

Over the past two years, South Africa lost nearly double the number of workdays owing to strikes and work stoppages (about 16-million in each year) than under the peak of rolling mass action under Apartheid (nine-million in 1988).

The report said The World Economic Forum ranked South Africa as the eighth worst country out of 139 in the world in terms of employee/employer conflict.