Big job growth in South Africa’s finance industry

There was significant growth in employment in the finance industry in the last three months of 2022.

There was an increase of 103,000 employees in finance in Q4 2022 compared to the previous quarter, according to a recent StatsSA labour force survey.

The finance industry added the most jobs of any sector in the last quarter. 

StatsSA classifies finance jobs as jobs in financial intermediation, insurance, real estate and business services.

Almost 2.5 million people are now employed in the finance industry.

Most of these – over 1 million in 2022 Q4 – are employed in Gauteng. The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are the next biggest regions where people are employed in finance.

Just over a million of those employed in the finance industry are women. 1.48 million finance workers are men.

There were also significant increases in employee numbers in the trade and private household industries.

There was a contraction in the number of people employed in the community and social services industry. Over 120,000 fewer people were working in that sector in Q4 2022 compared to the previous quarter.

The workforce of the construction and agriculture industries also shrank. 

The overall unemployment rate eased slightly in the fourth quarter, down 0.2%, meaning it now rests at 32.7%.

This is a 2.6% decrease from the level of unemployment in the last quarter of the year last year.