A surge in part-time employment, especially in the community services sector (which includes government, education, healthcare and other community institutions), helped South Africa’s formal job market grow modestly in the third quarter, despite a continued slide in full-time positions.
The Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) report released by Stats SA on Thursday shows that total formal non-agricultural employment rose by 29,000 jobs quarter on quarter (a 0.3% increase from June to September), bringing the total to 10.55-million.
The increase was largely driven by 50,000 new part-time jobs, with community services alone accounting for 42,000, followed by gains in trade and business services, though construction and manufacturing reported losses.
Full-time employment declined by 21,000 jobs, led by cuts in business services (-18,000) and manufacturing (-4,000). Community services and trade also shed a small number of full-time jobs, though mining and construction registered modest gains.
Despite the third quarter’s job growth, overall employment remains lower than a year ago, down 0.7%, or 79,000 jobs, between September 2024 and September 2025.
According to Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings, the labour market reflects “a significant lack of formal sector job creation since peaking in [the third quarter of] 2023.
“The expansion of full-time employment is obviously preferable to part-time employment for a few reasons, including that full-time employment provides much-needed stability within the labour market and also improves access to bank credit and other forms of capital,” he added.
The report also reflects modest growth in employee earnings. Gross earnings rose by R10.7bn (1.1%) quarter on quarter to reach R1-trillion, driven by gains in business services, community services, mining, manufacturing, electricity and construction. Only transport and trade recorded declines.
Basic salaries and wages increased 0.9% to R911.2bn, while bonus payments rose sharply by R6.2bn (10.9%), primarily due to payouts in business and community services. In contrast, overtime pay declined by R3.3bn (-11.1%), with cuts across all major sectors.
Stats SA also reported a 0.3% increase in average monthly earnings, from R29,402 in May to R29,490 in August. Year on year, earnings grew by 4.3%, outpacing the headline inflation rate over the same period.
“Unfortunately, SA is still struggling to consistently gain jobs in many of the economy’s key productive sectors, such as mining, manufacturing and construction,” Lings said.
The manufacturing sector has shed jobs in five of the past six quarters, while mining employment has declined in five of the last seven and construction in six of the last eight, he added.
“It is also clear that the community services sector is relatively volatile, with both job gains and losses, in part because the sector employs a relatively large number of part-time workers relative to other economic sectors,” Lings said.
Update: December 11 2025
This story contains an economist’s comment on the data
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