Total employment increased by 29 000 or 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, from 10 520 000 in June 2025 to 10 549 000 in September 2025; however, year-on-year employment indicated a decrease of -0.7%. South Africa recorded a marginal uptick in jobs in the third quarter of 2025, with total employment rising by 29 000 jobs (0.3%) between June and September, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on Thursday. However, employment was still 0.7% lower year-on-year, highlighting the economy’s ongoing labour market fragility.
According to Stats SA’s Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES), the quarterly gains were driven largely by increases in community services (+39 000 or 1.4%), trade (+6 000 or 0.3%), and mining (+5 000 or 1.1%). Employment levels in electricity and transport were unchanged. Declines were reported in business services (-12 000 or -0.5%), manufacturing (-5 000 or -0.4%), and construction (-4 000 or -0.7%).
Overall, total employment fell by 79 000 jobs year-on-year between September 2024 and September 2025. Full-time employment shrank by 21 000 jobs quarter-on-quarter to 9.4 million, mainly due to reductions in business services, manufacturing, community services and trade. Mining and construction were the only sectors to record small increases in full-time positions.
[paywall]
Year-on-year, full-time employment was down 72 000 jobs. Part-time employment, however, rose sharply by 50 000 jobs (4.6%) to 1.14 million, driven by strong gains in community services, trade and business services. Only construction and manufacturing shed part-time workers.
Despite the increase in part-time opportunities, part-time employment was still 0.6% lower compared with a year earlier. Gross earnings paid to employees increased by R10.7 billion (1.1%), rising from R990bn in June 2025 to just more than R1 trillion in September 2025. Matthew Parks, parliamentary coordinator for theCongress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), welcomed signs of improvement in the broader labour market, especially as reflected in last week’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
[/paywall]
