Job creation has picked up, but again remains sluggish. Statistics South Africa shows 123,000 jobs created from mid-year 2011 to mid-year 2012, about one third of which were in the public sector. The current level of formal sector employment is still about 60,000 less than that reached before the onset of the crisis.
The stronger growth in the domestic economy that we saw in the first half of 2012 was reflected in better credit extension figures. These have since moderated from 9.2 per cent in March, to 7.3 per cent and 7,8 per cent in July and August respectively.