SA economy bleeds 74k jobs in first quarter of 2025

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s employment has decreased by 74,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2025.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released the latest numbers showing the loss of jobs in comparison to the final quarter of 2024 on Tuesday.

Industries such as trade, community services and mining took the hardest knock.

Fifty-two thousand jobs were lost in the trade industry, accounting for 70% of jobs losses.

Community services and mining were also casualties in the first quarter of 2025, staving off 17,000 and 4,000 jobs, respectively.

Manufacturing is the only industry seemingly on the up, recording a slight hike of 2,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2025.

But a bleaker picture is painted by the results year-on-year, with latest statistics showing that the South African economy recorded 95,000 less jobs in 2025 than in the same period in 2024.

Forty thousand of those jobs were full-time posts.