80,000 jobs lost in Q2: Stats SA

South Africa’s job market took a hit in the second quarter of 2025, with total employment falling by 80,000 jobs, a 0.8% decline from March to June.

The drop, reported by Stats SA, brings the total number of employed individuals down to 10.51-million.

Stats SA released the quarterly employment statistics on Tuesday. The enterprise-based sample survey conducted by StatsSA is drawn from private non-agricultural businesses such as factories, firms, offices and stores, and from national, provincial and local government entities.

According to Stats SA, the decline was driven primarily by job losses in:

• community services;
• trade;
• manufacturing;
• construction;
• transport; and
• business services.

However, an increase was noted in the mining and electricity industries.

“The mining industry reported an annual decrease of 6,000 employees, or -1.3% in June 2024, compared with June 2025,” the survey found.

“There was a quarterly increase of 2,000 employees, or 0.4%, in June compared to March. This was mainly due to increases in chrome, coal, PGM and gold mining.

“The electricity, gas and water supply industry reported an annual increase of 1,000 employees, or 1.6% in June 2025 compared with June 2024. This was mainly due to increases in employment in electricity, gas, steam and water supply.”

Total employment decreased by 2.1% year-on-year between June 2024 and June 2025.

Full-time employment

Full-time employment decreased by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, from 9,457,000 in March to 9,413,000 in June. This was largely due to a decrease in:

• community service;
• business services;
• manufacturing;
• construction;
• trade; and
• transport.

However, there was an increase in the mining industry and the electricity industry showed no change in full-time employment.

Full-time employment decreased by 0.6% year-on-year between June 2024 and June 2025.

Part-time employment

Part-time employment decreased by 36,000. or 3.2%, quarter-on-quarter from 1,132,000 in March to 1,096,000 in June.

According to the findings, this was due to a decrease in the community services industry, trade and manufacturing industry.

However, there was an increase in the business services and electricity industry.

Part-time employment decreased by 174,000 or 13.7% year-on-year between June 2024 and June 2025.

Earnings

The statistics show gross earnings increased by R2.2bn from R984.7bn in March 2025 to R986.8bn in June 2025. The year-on-year gross earnings increased by R32.8bn between June 2024 and June 2025.

Basic salary/wages increased by R21.7bn or 2.5% from R881.1bn in March 2025 to R902.8bn in June 2025. This was largely due to an increase in:

• community services;
• business services;
• trade;
• manufacturing;
• construction;
• mining;
• transport; and
• electricity.

The year-on-year basic salary/wages increased by R31.2 billion or 3.6% between June 2024 and June 2025.

However, the bonus paid to employees decreased by R19.3bn or 25.4% from R75.8bn in March 2025 to R56.6bn in June 2025.

The year-on-year bonus payments increased by R2.8bn or 5.1% between June 2024 and June 2025.

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