Job Opportunities and Unemployment - Department of Labour

Table 1: Employment by occupation (‘000)Main Occupations April-June 2010 July -September 2010 October-December 2010 January-March 2011Managers 1 009 1 069 1 124 1 136Professionals 756 705 762 750Technicians 1 433 1 418 1 469 1 461Clerks 1 467 1 411 1 434 1 341Sales and services 1 883 1 858 1 882 1 904Skilled agriculture 115 76 73 75Craft and related trade workers 1 590 1 607 1 566 1 621Plant and machine operators 1 087 1 162 1 125 1 134Elementary occupations 2 828 2 782 2 829 2 821Domestic workers 892 887 869 877Total 13 061 12 975 13 132 13 118Source: Stats S.A, Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), own calculationsLooking at the employment by occupation, the data as pointed out in Table 1 shows that the changes in thenumber of the employed in all occupations except the managers has been sporadic. The managers are the onlyoccupational group that recorded an increase throughout all the four quarters. The number of people employedin the managers occupational group increased by 136 000 from 1 000 000 in quarter one of 2010 to 1 136 000 inquarter one of 2011. Between quarter four of 2010 and quarter one of 2011, jobs were largely created in the craftand related trade (55 000), sales and services (22 000) and manager (12 000) occupational categories. On the otherhand, the clerks, skilled agriculture and professional recorded a decrease of 93 000 and 12 000 respectively.The year-on-year picture between quarter one (January-March) 2010 and quarter one (January-March) 2011 showsthat the number of women employed decreased by 22 000 whereas the men increased by 63 000. The decreasein the number of women employed was brought about by a huge drop in the number of women employed in theclerical occupational group (96 000) and the sales and services occupational group (30 000). The data further showsthat there were twice as many women employed in the clerical occupational group as compared to men. Thereverse was true for the managerial occupational group. This confirms that the distribution of the employed in thedifferent occupations by sex is more uneven. Women are the most affected by the job losses and it decreases theirchances of getting better jobs as it takes more time to get another job once one is laid off.On a positive note the number of women employed in the managerial occupational group has increased by 75000 over the year. This might indicate that more women are being empowered although it is at a slow rate whencompared to men.Table 2: Educational level of the unemployed (‘000)Highest level of education April-June 2010 July-September 2010 October-December 2010 January-March 2011No Schooling 67 79 83 68Less than primary347 370 342 306completedPrimary completed 192 213 174 200Secondary not completed 2 001 2 028 1 872 2 023Secondary completed 1 496 1 424 1 403 1 504Tertiary 258 248 234 241Other 40 35 30 22Total 4 401 4 396 4 137 4 364Source: Stats S.A, Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), own calculations6