The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) has reported that the local steel and engineering sector lost 75,000 jobs from February to December 2009.
In an article published on SEIFSA's website, CEO David Carson said that employment in the sector reached a 10-year peak of 399,088 scheduled jobs in February 2009, but then quickly dropped to 324,236 jobs by December due to the global economic slowdown.
"There can be little doubt that business in South Africa faces an unusually difficult and uncertain year ahead. The events of the past year have left the world a very different place from what it was two years ago," Mr. Carson said.
"Our industry has weathered a number of recessions of varying intensity over this long period of time, but the global economic crisis and its significant impact on the national economy, and on manufacturing in particular, was particularly deep and severe," Carson added.