Business and Technology

Stats shows how many South Africans lost their jobs during lockdown

Stats SA has released its latest report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment in South Africa. The report cites data from a “wave 2 survey” which collated responses from 2,688 South African residents aged 18 and older. The data was collected between 29 April and 6 May 2020, which coincides with the second phase of South Africa’s national lockdown. 69.5% of respondents said they were in paid employment before the national lockdown, and 15.3% of respondents were self-employed.

“Almost nine in ten (89.5%) of those who were employed before the national lockdown, remained employed during the lockdown, 8.1% reported that they lost their jobs or had to close their businesses, and 1.4% became unemployed,” Stats SA said.

COVID-19 cases

“The national lockdown was the main reason most respondents (63.6%) were temporarily absent from work, while just over one-third (34.1%) indicated that they were not at work due to own ill-health and 2.3% were absent due to other reasons. Almost 70% of those lost their jobs reported this was due to their workplace shutting down or due to a lack of customers.

Before the national lockdown, the majority of respondents indicated that they had worked from non-residential buildings, while only 1.4% of those in employment worked from home,” Stats SA said.

Stats SA

“However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a change where 77.9% of those who worked during the national lockdown, did so from home compared to 15.1% who worked from non-residential buildings. The graph below shows the employment situation of all respondents during the national lockdown.

In other news – DStv shutting down 2 channels effective from 1 June 2020

Where necessary, and in agreement with the SABC, we will continue to give our customers access to classic SABC content on our channels, including subscription video on demand,” said MultiChoice. Despite the cancelling of the SABC Encore channel, the SABC’s news channel on Channel 404 will remain. Read more

Source: mybroadband