The construction sector in South Africa is a major player in alleviating unemployment. This was revealed upon the release of the results for the Quarterly Labor Force Survey (QLFS), Statistician General Pali Lehohla noted that unemployment in the country has decreases to 25 percent from 1.4 percent during the first and second quarters of the year 2015.
This improvement was majorly activated by the creation of 177 000 jobs in the informal sector. There were more decent jobs and an additional 263 persons in the less economic population which resulted to the fall of unemployment from 26.4 percent to 25 percent in 2Q.
There was also a 1.5 percent q/q increase in the number of discouraged workers which was part of the low employment rate.
According to the survey done, the biggest job gains came from community service and public sector with employment of 98 000 people, the construction industry registered 79 000 while trade industry saw 73 000 people employed.
Major loses were seen in the financial and business sector at -31 000, the manufacturing industry registered -23 000 while the agricultural industry had -22 000.
The yearly results indicated that 200 000 jobs were created by the agricultural sector, 153 000 jobs by the business sector while the construction sector in South Africa registered the most with creation of 219 000 jobs.
Other factors brought out in the survey showed that the working age for the South African population was at 36 million with 15.7 million people being employed, 5.2 standing unemployed while 15.1 million was not economically active.
The formal sector had the largest employment at 69.2 percent while the agricultural sector was low at 5.6 percent.
