Employment increased by 141,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to the third quarter, Statistics SA said on Tuesday. Statistician General Pali Lehohla said there were an extra 123 000 jobs in the informal sector and 64 000 jobs in the formal sector which contributed to the overall increase. However, the agricultural and private households industries shed 27 000 and 20 000 jobs respectively. The number of unemployed people decreased by 50 000 over the period, he told reporters in Pretoria at the release of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). The decrease in the number of unemployed people meant the unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percent to 24.1 percent, he said. The absorption rate increased by 0.2 to 43.4 percent. The QLFS is a household-based survey conducted by Stats SA. It collects data on the labour market activities of the population aged 15 years and above. Lehohla said year-on-year employment increased by 653 000 from the fourth quarter in 2012 to the fourth quarter of 2013. This was largely as a result of an employment increase of 507 000 in the formal sector. The informal sector increased by 95 000 in the same period. Between the fourth quarter in 2012 and the fourth quarter of 2013, employment increased in all nine provinces, but the Western Cape had the largest increase.
