Pretoria - South Africa created 157 000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2010, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Tuesday.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, employment increased by 1.2 percent, which led to a total 13.1 million people being employed in the fourth quarter.
Between the third and fourth quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate dropped by 1.3 percent to 24 percent. In the three months to September 2010, the unemployment rate stood at 25.3 percent.
"Even with the drop in the levels of the unemployed, the total number of unemployed persons remained high at 4.1 million persons," said Stats SA, adding that 68 percent of those who were unemployed were in long term unemployment as they were unemployed for a year or even longer.
According to the survey, the formal sector gained 120 000 while the informal sector gained 53 000 jobs between quarter three and four. The agriculture sector lost 13 000 jobs, while private households remained virtually unchanged.
Black South Africans in the fourth quarter had the highest unemployment rate at 28.1 percent, followed by coloured people at 21.3 percent. Indian and white people had the lowest unemployment rate at 7.9 and 5.5 percent respectively. For youth as well as women, unemployment remained higher than the national average.
The community and social services and manufacturing industries contributed the most to employment, with increases of 5.5 percent and 4.1 percent respectively.
The year-on-year estimates show that between 2009 and 2010, employment contracted by 1.2 percent or 118 000 jobs, according to the survey.
In its morning shee,t Absa Capital said it expected the numbers to continue to reflect relatively challenging labour market conditions.
