Africa-Press – South-Africa. Stats SA has published the latest Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) for the third quarter of 2025, showing that the average salary in the country has hit a record high.
The average salary paid to formal, non-agricultural workers in South Africa grew 0.3% quarter-on-quarter and 4.3% year-on-year to R29,490.
The increase in earnings was driven by key industries, with the manufacturing industry experiencing the fastest growth.
This was followed by the transport, construction and business services sectors. Trade, community services and electricity earnings declined in the quarter.
On a year-on-year basis, the community services industry reported the largest annual increase at 6.1%, while the business services industry had the lowest growth at 2.1%.
Conversely, the mining industry declined year-on-year by 0.8%.
Notably, the community services industry includes the government and public service sector.
Gross earnings paid to employees increased by R10.7 billion or 1,1% from R990 billion in June 2025 to just over R1 trillion in September 2025.
This was due to increases in the business services, community services, mining, manufacturing, electricity and construction. Transport and trade reported a decrease in gross earnings.
Year-on-year gross earnings increased by R31.2 billion or 3,2% between September 2024 and September 2025.
Basic salary/wages paid to employees increased by R7.8 billion or 0.9% from R903.4 billion in June 2025 to R911.2 billion in September 2025.
Bonuses paid to employees increased by R6.2 billion or 10.9% from R56.7 billion in June 2025 to R62.9 billion in September 2025.
Overtime paid to employees decreased by R3.3 billion or 11.1% from R29.9 billion in June 2025 to R26.6 billion in September 2025.
While the quarter-on-quarter growth in earnings over the period was relatively flat, the year on year growth at 4.3% is markedly higher than inflation.
This is a strong positive for salary earners in South Africa, marking real growth in earnings against the low inflation environment.
Inflation is expected to average 3.5% in 2025, tracking much lower in the latter half of the year.
Trouble for jons
The QES marked an increase in employment over the quarter, but still recorded a drop in employment year-on-year.
Total employment increased by 29,000 or 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, from 10.52 million in June 2025 to
10.55 million in September 2025.
This was due to increases in the community services (39,000 or 1.4%), trade (6,000 or 0.3%), and mining (5,000 or 1.1%) sectors.
The electricity and transport sectors remained unchanged. However, there were decreases reported by the business services (-12,000 or -0.5%), manufacturing (-5,000 or -0.4%), and construction (-4,000 or
-0.7%) sectors.
Year-on-year, however, the picture was not as bright.
Total employment decreased by 79,000 or -0.7% year-on-year between September 2024 and September 2025.
Full-time employment decreased by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, and by 0.8% year-on-year. Part-time employment increased by 4.6% quarter-on-quarter, but decreased 0.6% year-on-year.
The data stands in contrast to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), which recorded an increase of 248,000 in the number of employed persons to 17.1 million in Q3.
This saw the unemployment rate reduce from 33.2% in Q2 to 31.9% in Q3.
The QES is an employer survey and tracks the number of jobs in the formal, non-agricultural sector. The QLFS is a labour survey and covers the entire South African workforce.
The latest QLFS also included a host of definition changes to better capture the differences between the “Not Economically Active” population, and those “Outside the Labour Force” and the “Potential labour force”.
While the changes impact the numbers shifting around the different categories, they don’t necessarily impact the key differences between employed and unemployed, only the expanded definitions.
Overall, the QLFS data indicates a positive turn in the overall workforce, while the QES points to strain in formal, non-agricultural employment.
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