Total employment grew by 1,5% or 193 000 in the quarter ended in September 2011, says Stats SA. This is the highest increase observed since the recession in 2009. This was mainly driven by the growth in the formal sector which grew by 2,6% or 238 000 jobs.

The quarter-to-quarter growth in the formal sector was observed in finance & other business services (69 000), construction (53 000), Trade (41 000) and community & social services (30 000).

The informal sector remains turbulent quarter-to-quarter. It contracted by 2,4% or 53 000 jobs after an increase of 34 000 jobs in the previous quarter. However, year-onyear figures show less turbulence in that after 5 successive quarters of growth, the informal sector contracted by 0,6% or 12 000 jobs year on year in Q3:2011.

Year-on-year the formal sector gained 393 000 jobs and this is the third successive quarter showing growth and is the highest since the recession in 2009. This was mainly driven by community & social services (157 000) , finance & other business services (133 000) and trade (55 000).

Unemployment

Between the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2011, unemployment level declined by 96 000 resulting in a decline in the unemployment rate by 0,7 percentage point to 25,0%.

This is the first quarter this year to record a decline in unemployment level after an increase of 227 000 and 174 000 in the first and second quarter respectively. However, levels of unemployment still remain high compared to the same quarter last year.

Despite a decline in unemployment in the 3rd quarter, 4,4 million people remain unemployed and just over 3,0 million (68,2%) have been unemployed for a period of 1 year or more. Furthermore, 60,2% of the job seekers do not have matric.