A Labour Statistics Report released Wednesday shows that prior to the onset of the recession last October, employment was on the rise with a total 315,800 people working in Botswana's formal sector as at September 2008.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), this figure represents a rise of 3.2 percent or 9,800 people from the September 2007 research. The private sector continued its dominance as the main employer accounting for 56.6 percent of total jobs countrywide as at September 2008.

However, public and private players will have to wait a little longer for an accurate and up-to-date assessment of the recession's impact on employment in Botswana. The CSO says formal sector employment figures for the quarter ending December 2008 have not (yet) been compiled.

"The scope of the September 2008 survey was broadened to collect information on occupations, job vacancies, attrition, as well as usual hours worked," says the CSO report.

"The September 2008 survey therefore took longer than expected such that the December survey was not conducted. Such a comprehensive quarterly survey was last carried out in 1999."

The global financial crisis hit local shores in October 2008, with the first impact felt on the mining sector where new players such as DiamonEx and African Copper found themselves short of operating capital due to a collapse in mineral prices.

Following that period, the domestic economy was in turbulence with industries across the board implementing cost-cutting measures, including retrenchments, as the crisis took hold. Unconfirmed estimates indicate that as many as 800 workers could have lost their jobs in the mining sector alone while figures for other sectors remain largely disaggregated.

The latest Labour Statistics Report covers formal sector employment trends between January and September 2008. These trends include the total employed, work permit holders, average salaries and wages and for the quarter ending September 2008, the report includes total numbers of vacancies and departures from the sector. The report also compares formal sector employment trends for 2008 with those dating as far back as September 2002.

According to the CSO, prior to the recession, employment was on the rise across most sectors, with 2,600 jobs being created in the formal sector between March and June 2008 and a further 4,600 opening up between June and September 2008.

According to the report, employment in local government jumped by 6.3 percent between September 2007 and September 2008 to 28,500 people, while in central government over the same period, employment rose by 4.3 percent to 94,100 people.

In the private and parastatal sector, the wholesale and retail trade industry accounted for the lion's share of employment as at September 2008, followed by manufacturing, construction and real estate and business activities.

The report also shows that as at the end of September 2008, 5,389 vacancies were estimated in the formal sector, the majority of these in the technicians occupation, followed by craft workers and professionals. At industry level, construction and central government had the highest proportion of vacancies.

Departures or attrition statistics indicate that service workers recorded the highest attrition rate, followed by clerks and technicians. Attrition by reason shows that resignation was the most popular, followed by dismissal, other reason and death. By industry, the majority of departures were in the wholesale and retail trade, followed by construction and manufacturing.

Public administration recorded the highest number of deaths, followed by the wholesale and retail trade sector.