MORE than 40000 jobs in the formal business sector, excluding agriculture, were lost between September and December last year, the government’s Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. The total employment in the sector fell by 2,5% or 121,476 employees for the whole of last year. These figures exclude self-employed people who are not registered for value added tax, domestic workers and the agricultural sector. The official unemployment rate increased from 22% in October 1997 to 25,5% in October 1998, according to a separate survey using a method of calculation which counts only those actively seeking work. Under the previous method of calculation, South African unemployment stood at 34% in 1996.