Stats SA’s QLFS provides a number of insights into the structure of South Africa’s labour market. This chart shows that employment levels are largest in community and social services (reflecting the large amount of employment in the public sector) and wholesale & retail trade. While employment growth since 2010 has been low in most industries, there are a couple of exceptions, such as female employment in community and social services and male employment in finance. The biggest differences in employment levels by sex are in construction and transport (with more men employed than women) and community and social services and private households (with more women employed than men). Employment in private households includes domestic workers. Employment in manufacturing has also been decreasing over recent years. It is likely that employment was underestimated in the series for agriculture prior to 2015, possibly owing to a shift in how many informal farmers were counted as employed.
