Concern as job creation slows to a crawl

MORE jobs were created than lost in the past year, but overall employment growth has nearly slowed to a halt, with fewer than 600 people joining the workforce for every month.

The numbers in employment grew slightly by the second quarter of this year, with the bulk of new jobs in trade, health and finance. But job numbers in construction plummeted.

Our potential labour force stands at 2.23 million, but about 115,000 of these people are jobless.