Slight rise in jobs in December says Adcorp

The index is regarded as a representative monthly barometer of employment trends in SA‚ although its figures do not usually tally with those from SA's official statistics agency‚ Statistics SA.

Adcorp said in the last four months of 2012 the economy added 125‚029 jobs‚ in total with 12‚556 new jobs in December‚ reversing the decline of the first eight months of last year.

Jobs growth was recorded in all sectors except mining and manufacturing.

The professional services firm noted that the statistics‚ while positive‚ nevertheless obscured the negative permanent jobs picture‚ where employment declined by 5‚542‚ whereas temporary jobs increased by 9‚074 during the month.

The informal sector grew strongly‚ creating 9‚024 jobs during December.

The primary and secondary sectors continued to shed jobs. Mining and manufacturing lost as many as 15‚000 jobs between them during the month. The tertiary sectors (mostly services) gained 17‚000 jobs.

The strongest employment growth was observed in transport (12.7%)‚ wholesale and retail trade (3.4%) and construction (4.7%).

In an analysis of recent trends in permanent and temporary work in SA‚ Adcorp revealed that from 2000 to 2012‚ the number of permanent jobs declined by 1.9m‚ whereas the number of temporary jobs increased by 2.6m.

"Currently temporary jobs account for 30.5% of all jobs in SA‚ up from 11% in 2000‚" says Adcorp's labour market analyst Loane Sharp.

Sharp characterised the past decade's growing substitution of temporary for permanent jobs as "a striking feature" of SA's labour market‚ noting that since January 2000‚ the number of permanent jobs had declined by 1.9m - a period during which temporary jobs increased by 2.6m.