JOHANNESBURG, Sept 18 (Reuters) – The number of people
employed in South Africa’s formal sector nudged up 0.5 percent
in the second quarter of 2012 with the mining sector taking on
more workers but jobs losses in manufacturing, a survey showed
on Tuesday.
Unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing
Africa’s largest economy, with 24.9 percent of the labour force
out of work in the second quarter.
The mining sector drove gross domestic product growth to 3.2
percent in the second quarter but a mining strike begun at
Lonmin’s platinum mine last month is likely to
reverse these gains in the third quarter.
The government said on Monday that strikes in the mining
industry this year have cost the industry 4.5 billion rand ($548
million) in lost output.
Statistics South Africa said employment increased by 42,000
people in the second quarter of this year to 8.425 million
employees and was up 1.5 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The manufacturing sector, which contributes 15 percent to
GDP, lost 9,000 jobs in the quarter compared with the first
three months of the year.
Analysts say South Africa needs to relax its labour laws to
create the jobs it needs to stem social unrest and drive
economic growth.
($1 = 8.2075 South African rand)
(Reporting by Xola Potelwa; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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