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South Africa's mining industry defied the national trend in the second quarter of this year when it created more quarter-on-quarter jobs at a time when overall South African employment fell, underscoring mining's resilience amid broader economic pressures.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, mining added 2 000 second-quarter jobs, with formal mining employment as of June 30 this year reaching the 468 000 mark compared with 466 000 at the end of March.
Over the same period, total non-agriculture employment averaged 10 509 000 in the second quarter of 2025, a decline of 80 000 compared with the previous quarter.
Moreover, there was a drop of 229 000 jobs when year-on-year jobs to June 2024 are compared with the employment position as of June 2025.
Looking ahead, Minerals Council South Africa reports that, in the short term to medium term, the South African economy's ability to retain and sustain jobs will depend on trade negotiations, while in the long-term there is need for policymakers in South Africa to address the structural constraints including a predictable and investible operating environment.
The council adds that reforms in the network industries continue to be 'baseline' reforms aimed at recouping lost inefficiencies. For example, Eskom has yet to reach the electricity generation levels it achieved in 2019. The same with Transnet. More still needs to be done to attract investment and create additional employment opportunities.
Focusing on year-on-year formal employment performance, five of the eight sectors represented in the quarterly estimates shed jobs with the community services sector losing 225 000 jobs, followed by manufacturing (-18 000), mining (-6 000), transport (-3 000) and trade (-1 000). Employment increases were experienced in electricity (+1 000) and the business (+23 000) sectors in the year-on-year review period.
The quarter-on-quarter employment increase is attributable to jobs added by platinum group metals, gold, chrome and coal mining.
"To understand the dynamics of wage growth and labour productivity, it is essential to examine earnings data. The relevance of this data lies in its ability to reveal trends in wages' growth and labour productivity.
"If we compare real gross earnings in mining with labour productivity there was a 'decoupling', starting in the last quarter of 2021.
"Growth in real gross earnings is faster than labour productivity. Mining employees are getting paid more relative to the value they produce. Among others, this is an indication of a highly unionised workforce which can negotiate relatively higher wage increases.
"There is also an ominous side to it. This mismatch can lead to inflationary pressures, profit margin compression and a reduction in global competitiveness of the South African mining sector.
"Evidence of this phenomenon can be seen in the performance of gross operating surplus (a proxy for profits) in the mining sector. Gross operating surplus has not only been volatile, but growth has predominantly been negative post-Covid," the Minerals Council states in a release to Mining Weekly.
On another note, total economy-wide employee remuneration - viewed from the lens of basic salaries and wages - indicates a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.5% to R902.8-billion in the second quarter of 2025.
On a year-on-year basis, an increase of 3.6% in basic salaries and wages was recorded.
Gross earnings for the total economy, which include bonus and overtime payments, increased by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter and 3.4% year-on-year to a record R986.8-billion in the second quarter of this year.
Quarter-on-quarter growth in gross mining sector earnings was 2.2% higher than the rest of the economy. However, year-on-year growth at 2.9% was lower than the rest of the econom...