South Africa shed close to 50,000 jobs in the last quarter, and almost 60,000 in the past year, new data released by Stats SA has shown.

As many as 48,000 jobs were lost in the three months to March 2017, with most being shed in the trade and business services industries.

Year-on-year, the picture looks even worse, with a net loss of 58,000 jobs since March 2016.

However, new jobs in the mining and construction sectors helped ease some of the employment woes the country faces.

Employment data for the previous quarter showed that South Africa reached its highest unemployment rate in 14 years, climbing to 27.7% in the first quarter of 2017.

As many as 9.3 million people are now looking for work in the country, while just over 9.6 million are employed in the sectors assessed (non-agricultural).

Gross earnings paid to employees totalled R587.9 billion – 3.2% less than in the previous quarter, but up 6% year-on-year – while the average monthly salary per employee climbed marginally (0.8%) to R18,687 (R224,200 per year).

Read: SA unemployment rate hits worst level in 14 years