South Africa’s official unemployment rate has decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 32.1% in the third quarter of 2024, down from a two-year high of 33.5% in the second quarter.
The quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) published by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) today showed that there was an increase of 294 000 in the number of employed persons to 16.9 million in the three months to September, while there was a decrease of 373 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.0 million during the same period.
Stats SA said this resulted in a decrease of 79 000 (down by 0.3%) in the labour force during the same period.
However, discouraged work-seekers increased by 160 000 or up by 5.0%, and the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement rose by 54 000 (up by 0.4%) between the second quarter and third quarter of 2024.
This led to an increase of 214 000 in the number of the not-economically active population to 16.5 million.
Stats SA said that as a result of these changes, the expanded unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2024 decreased by 0.7 of a percentage point to 41.9% when compared with the second quarter.
“The number of persons employed in the formal sector increased by 122 000 in the third quarter, and the informal sector employment increased by 165 000 over the same period,” Stats SA said.
“The largest increases in employment were recorded in Community and social services (194 000), Construction (176 000) and Trade (109 000). Decreases in employment were recorded in Finance (189 000), Private households (32 000), Manufacturing (20 000) and Transport (18 000).”
The results also indicated that the largest increases in employment were observed in Eastern Cape (83 000), Western Cape (75 000), North West (69 000) and Mpumalanga (49 000), while decreases were only observed in Gauteng (66 000) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (2 000).
According to Stats SA, the youth (15 to 34 years) remained vulnerable in the labour market. The results show that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 171 000 to 4.8 million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 66 000 to 5.8 million.
As a result, youth unemployment rate decreased from 46.6% in the second quarter of 2024 to 45.5% in the third quarter of 2024.
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