Employment in South Africa's non-agricultural formal sector dropped by 69 000 between March and June 2018, Stats SA announced on Wednesday in its latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) bulletin. 

The QES results, published quarterly, are based on a sample survey conducted by Stats SA and include findings on employment in the non-agricultural formal sector. 

Stats SA reported that non-agricultural formal sector employment dropped from 9 817 000 in March 2018 to 9 748 000 in June 2018.

This was largely due to decreases in:

• community services (-67 000 or -2.5%);
• manufacturing (-13 000 or -1.1%);
• mining and quarrying (-2 000 or -0.4%) and
• transport (-2 000 or -0.4%).

Increases were reported in:

• trade (7 000 or 0.3%);
• business services (7 000 or 0.3%), and
• construction (1 000 or 0.2%).

QES samples are drawn from private non-agricultural businesses such as factories, firms, offices, and stores, as well as from national, provincial and local government entities.

The QES bulletin is separate from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which is also published by Stats SA. While the labour force survey gives South Africa's official unemployment rate, the QES gives a snapshot of total non-agricultural formal sector employment. 

The QES bulletin does not provide an official unemployment rate. 

The decrease between March and June follows a quarter-on-quarter increase in the first quarter of 2018. Stats SA reported in June that SA had added 56 000 jobs between December 2017 and March 2018.