{"id":798245,"date":"2024-11-01T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=798245"},"modified":"2024-11-01T12:34:16","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T10:34:16","slug":"turning-point-for-employment-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/798245\/turning-point-for-employment-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning point for employment in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers\u2019 Index (PMI) for October shows that employment prospects in the country are slowly edging into positive territory, with businesses sitting on the edge of a turning point for hiring decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PMI was down 0.7 percentage points to 52.6 in October, although the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) said caution should be exercised when interpreting this as being too negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It means that the sector expanded this month compared to last month,” the economists said, noting that it is also the second consecutive month with the index above 50 print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This has not happened since a positive streak in late 2022 and early 2023.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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The PMI is based on a survey of a representative group of purchasing managers in the South African manufacturing sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These purchasing managers indicate each month whether a particular activity (e.g. new sales orders and hiring) for their company has increased, decreased or remained unchanged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An index value of 50 indicates no change in the activity, a value above 50 indicates increased activity and a value below 50 indicates decreased activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the breakdown of the specific indices, the business activity index increased by 4.1 points to 55.6 in October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, while the new sales orders index slightly decreased by 1.4 points to 54.8 in October, it stayed well above 50, signalling a sustained expansion in demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While export sales slowed, it remained in expansionary territory. Local demand is expected to pick up pace as some benefits from the interest rate cut come through with a lag and other windfalls in the form of lower inflation,” the BER said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boost from withdrawals following the introduction of the two-pot retirement system could further lift consumer spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New sales orders remained well above 50, suggesting that suppliers continue to perform and are coping with improving activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the improvement in activity, manufacturers remain cautious with employment decisions, the BER noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The employment index gained 0.5 points compared to last month but was stuck just below 50, indicating that activity is still down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the index has been edging up over the last three months, starting at 43.4 in August and sitting at 49.4 in October, on the cusp of a turning point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sustained demand growth is needed to boost production, leading to increased employment over time,” the BER said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Businesses are still optimistic that operating conditions will improve, although this optimism has waned relative to last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index measuring expected business conditions in six months\u2019s time fell from 70.8 in September to 62.7, but it remains above the long-term average of 61.3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PMI survey again showed that the inflation outlook is positive, with the purchasing price index decreasing to a low of 60 points, the lowest reading since early 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October benefitted from fuel price cuts of 106 to 114 cents at the start of the month, but a slight increase in fuel prices is expected next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read: Petrol price pain expected next week<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of South Africa’s most critical employment sectors is on the cusp of a turning point when it comes to hiring activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":699621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-798245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":798251,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798245\/revisions\/798251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}