First-quarter employment data recently released by Statistics South Africa reflected a total loss of 15 553 jobs since the beginning of 2015. This downward trend is getting cumulatively worse, with 3 550 job losses being recorded in the third quarter and 6 902 for the fourth quarter of 2015, and 9 012 job losses in the first quarter of this year. Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) chief economist Henk Lagenhoven asserted earlier this month that the increasing rate of job losses is the best reflection of the declining metals and engineering sector, which employed 381 330 people in South Africa.
↧