A bit of self-promotion
The University of Oxford historian, William Beinart, has reviewed my book, “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture”, in the latest issue of the South African Journal of Science. You can read the review here.
And oh, you can order the book here, or any major bookstore nationwide.
Also, my weekly column on Business Day is out, you can read it here.
Data response
Today’s Morning Note focused on agricultural jobs (see here) and highlighted prospects of a decline in employment in the sector in Q2, 2020 although this is a year of a bumper harvest and agriculture was operational from the onset of the lockdown. The numbers that came out from Statistics South Africa today confirmed this view, showing a 5% y/y decline in employment in the second quarter of the year to 799 033 jobs. The decline in employment was in all provinces except the Western Cape and Limpopo, which I find surprising, especially the Western Cape.
The wine industry in this particular province has been under pressure since the start of the lockdown, and one would have expected a decline in employment in the province. With that said, Statistics South Africa does caution against making strict comparisons to previous quarters because of data collection limitations. In terms of subsectors, the decline in employment is spread across all subsectors, primarily in the livestock, field crops, game and hunting industry, forestry and fisheries.
Personal note
Ok, now to the more important point on this “personal note”, I am taking leave for the rest of the week, which means there won’t be a Morning Note for the next three days. I will be back with it on Monday, October 5, although I might write a Weekend Note.
Follow me on Twitter (@WandileSihlobo). E-mail: wandile@agbiz.co.za
