Employment falls as cup projects end

Employment fell sharply between April and May 2010, representing an annualised decline of 6,2% during the month, according to the latest Adcorp Employment Index released on Tuesday.

“The completion of many construction and infrastructure related projects associated with the Fifa World Cup has exacerbated the fall,” the employment services company’s CEO Richard Pike said in a statement.

Although employment fell across all job types, it declined most sharply in the highly cyclical construction (10,2%) and trade (9,2%) sectors.

The decline in the construction and trade sectors reflected the ending of public infrastructure projects, as well as the continued weakness in consumer spending.

“We have seen employment fall across all job types and particularly among low-skilled and semi-skilled workers, who are typically employed in the construction and trade sectors, which saw a 10,1% and 7,4% fall respectively.”

Amongst permanent, full-time staff, the trend—in evidence since 2001—continued its decline, with employment in this category falling 7,2%.

Notable was the number of South Africans returning from abroad.
 
“High unemployment in the world’s major English-speaking countries is the primary factor.”

The US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand lost 9,1-million jobs during the recent recession, Pike said.

“A secondary factor is the ‘homecoming revolution’, fuelled by disillusionment in emigrants’ foreign experiences.”

Finance (28%), medical (16%), academic/teaching (13%) and legal (9%) professionals constituted the highest proportion of returnees.

Roughly 39 000 South African job-seekers returned from foreign countries over the past year, representing 13,7% of those who left the country to find work since 1990.

On account of South Africa’s skills shortage, unemployment for highly skilled professionals was just 1.4 percent. He said the number of returnees was likely to rise to 120 000 as foreign short-term work contracts expired.—Sapa