South Africa's business services sector is becoming an important source of jobs, even though macroeconomic growth remains slow and unemployment remains persistently high.
Newly released figures from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) show that the real estate, financial support and business services industry is set to employ more than two million people in 2024, with security services, business support companies and labor recruitment firms accounting for a significant share of those jobs.
But while employment is growing across the industry, gains have been uneven, with traditional real estate businesses losing thousands of jobs over the past eight years.
According to Stats SA, the largest employer between 2020 and 2024 was the segment of other business activities, including services such as call centers and debt collection agencies, which accounted for just under 26% of total employment.
The report, released every four years, showed that the investigation and security industry was the second largest employer, with more than 382,000 employees, followed by labor recruitment and personnel services, which employed more than 205,000 people.
However, not every part of the real estate and business services industry has expanded.
Employment in real estate activities declined, leading to the loss of about 35,000 jobs over the eight-year period, while architectural and engineering services also recorded job losses.
Stats SA said that although large companies generated more than half of industry income, small, medium and micro enterprises employed more than half of the workforce, underscoring the important role of small businesses in job creation.
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