The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that the education sector accounted for about 50 of the total employment generated in the formal sector in the first half of this year.
The NBS stated this in the latest jobs report released yesterday.
According to the agency, in the first and second quarters of 2014, over 85 per cent of employment was made up of the three cadres of managerial, professional and technical workers.
The NBS explained that the managerial, professional and technical cadre recorded 1,085,071 employees, representing 34.25 per cent of the total in the first quarter, a figure which increased to 1,091,096 employees, representing 34.62 per cent of the total in second quarter.
Those employed as operatives were 943,652, representing 29.78 per cent of the total employed in first quarter and 930,507, representing 29.53 per cent in second quarter.
At the operative and clerical and related office cadres, those employed totalled 679,173, representing 21.43 per cent in first quarter, a slightly lesser than 672,714 or 21.35 per cent recorded in second quarter.
The NBS stated: “By economic activity, education (private) was the greatest employer in the formal sector; with1,573,082 employees, it made up 49.64 per cent of the total employed in the first quarter.
“It increased marginally by 0.43 per cent or 6,771 employees in the second quarter, to reach 1,579,854 or 50.13 per cent of the total.”
The manufacturing sector recorded 503,023 or 15.87 per cent of the total formal employment, yet declined by 2.64 per cent to employ 489,273 or 15.54 per cent of the total employed in the formal sector in second quarter.
The bureau noted that overall, the main driver of the decline in formal employment in the second quarter came from the professional, scientific and technical services activity.
These sectors accounted for 107,986 jobs or 3.41 per cent of the total in the first quarter, a figure which declined by 49.35 per cent to just 54,697 or 1.74 per cent of the total employed in the second quarter.
Administrative and support services increased by 340.85 per cent from the 16,592 employees recorded in the first quarter to 73,145 in the second quarter.
