Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) finds in its latest manufacturing survey that the industry has shed 309 000 jobs since 2005.
The manufacturing industry had 1.092-million jobs in 2021, compared with 1.4-million jobs in 2005.
Over the same period, the contribution of the manufacturing sector to gross domestic product declined from 19.1% to 13.2%.
Employment fluctuations have been particularly prevalent in the textiles and clothing, metals and machinery, wood, paper and publishing, and furniture and other manufacturing sectors.
The majority of job losses from 2005 to 2021 occurred in the textiles and clothing industry, which shed 121 500 jobs, followed by 51 700 jobs in metals and machinery, 43 700 jobs in wood, paper and publishing, 33 200 jobs in food and beverages and 29 700 jobs in furniture manufacturing.
Manufacturing in South Africa is concentrated in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Cape Town and eThekwini, which accounted for 60% of the national manufacturing workforce in 2021. These four cities also account for just more than half of goods and services sales nationally.
Notably, Johannesburg had the highest number of manufacturing jobs, accounting for 17.2% of the national total in 2021.
On a provincial level, Gauteng recorded the highest income from manufacturing sales in 2021, at R974-billion, or 41.6% of the national total.
The top ten products manufactured in South Africa in 2021 were diesel fuel, automotive components, medium passenger motor vehicles, light commercial vehicles, unleaded petrol, aerated soft drinks, gold, autocatalytic converters, semi-finished aluminium products, lager beer and flat-rolled steel products.
These products contributed 22.5%, or R511-billion, to income generated from sales in 2021.
The 2021 results reflect the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the performance of manufacturing enterprises.
Stats SA conducts the manufacturing survey every three to five years.