Just over a third of South Africa’s top 120 companies are likely to retrench staff in the next six months, Business Day reported on Friday.
The worst-affected sectors would be construction, mining, industrials, financial services, forestry, paper and pulp, vehicles and logistics, the newspaper said, citing a snap survey carried out this week by business advisory services firm KPMG.
The survey also found that about 65% of companies were likely to offer staff voluntary packages instead of forcing them out of work.
About 90% of companies across all sectors had steeply cut costs, but KPMG said this didn’t relate to subprime woes, but rather to local economic factors such as high interest rates, inflation and the volatile exchange rate.
Carol Read, a director and policy board member at KPMG, was quoted as saying: ”At first glance this may seem to be a negative outlook to the survey results, however, on further examination as to the rationale of this feedback, we found that many businesses view this strategy as merely a short- to medium-term answer.
”They are therefore examining what else can be done to correct this imbalance to ensure long-term prosperity of commerce and growth in our economy.” — Sapa