Industry, commerce and construction are industries that depend heavily on constant power supply. But despite South Africa experiencing blackouts most days from July to September, these industries accounted for the bulk of job gains in the third quarter.
Production, welder. Photo: Pixabay.com
JOHANNESBURG – Recent unemployment figures in South Africa show that the industry has adjusted to the country’s electricity crisis.
The country appears to be recovering in terms of employment, with 204,000 jobs added in the second and third quarters of this year.
The unemployment rate fell by a percentage point from 33.9% in the previous quarter to 32.9% in the latest.
South Africa has had its worst blackouts this year.
Industry, commerce and construction are industries that depend heavily on constant power supply.
But despite South Africa experiencing blackouts for most days between July and September, it was these industries that accounted for the bulk of the job gains in the third quarter of this year.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke: “If you look at trade, most shops, malls and wholesalers have generators, so if they are affected by the outage, they can operate regardless.”
Maluleke said high fuel prices had also affected job losses in sectors such as finance, which lost 80,000 jobs.
“It’s very difficult for them to have these machines that they use, to have alternative sources of energy if they run out of electricity or diesel to run them. So what did they do? They have started to limit the number of employees they have.’
Thirty-six thousand jobs were lost in private farms, such as garden workers, and 1,000 were also lost in agriculture and mining.
