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- South Africa’s employment levels worsened for the second month running in October as industrial activity in the country was severely affected by the metalworkers’ three-week strike.
- The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) published recently showed a sharp decline in activity across the private sector in October, due to the strike that disrupted output and sales
South Africa’s employment levels worsened for the second month running in October as industrial activity in the country was severely affected by the metalworkers’ three-week strike.
The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) published recently showed a sharp decline in activity across the private sector in October, due to the strike that disrupted output and sales. The PMI fell to contraction levels to 48.6 points in October from 50.7 points in September, a third deterioration in business conditions in the past four months.
The index was the second-lowest in over a year after July’s reading. However, after recording the first uplift in four months in September, output at South African businesses fell sharply at the start of the fourth quarter.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), which has more than 150 000 members in the steel and engineering industry, last month launched a protracted strike demanding an 8 percent salary increase, which caused the sector R600 million as productivity loss and metalworkers R100m in lost wages. The HIS survey also flagged shortages of raw materials as a result of industrial action, contributing again to weaker activity, longer lead times and an acceleration of input price inflation.
