Private-sector job opportunities benefited most from the economic recovery, but there was also a moderate increase in public-sector employment. The pick-up in enterprise-surveyed employment was, however, not sustained in the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005. Over the year to March 2005 enterprise-surveyed employment rose, on balance, by 111 000.
The strongest increases were recorded in the community, social and personal services and trade sectors, while employment in gold mining, finance and manufacturing shrank over this one-year period. Whereas the enterprise survey measures formal employment in the main non-agricultural sectors of the economy, results from household surveys measures all employment.