Big turn for unemployment in South Africa

South Africa’s official unemployment rate has reached 32.1% for the third quarter of 2024—improving by 1.4 percentage points over the previous quarter.

According to Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the number of employed persons increased by 294,000 to 16.9 million in Q3 2024.

There was also a decrease of 373,000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.0 million.

Stats SA said that resulted in a decrease of 79,000 (down by 0.3%) in the labour force during the same period.

Discouraged work-seekers increased by 160,000 (up by 5.0%).

The number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 54,000 (up by 0.4%) between Q2 and Q3 2024.

This led to 214,000 in the not economically active population to 16.5 million.

These changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing by 1.4 percentage points from 33.5% in Q2 2024 to 32.1% in Q3 2024.

The expanded unemployment rate in Q3 2024 decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 41.9% compared to Q2 2024.

The number of persons employed in the formal sector increased by 122,000 in Q3 2024.

The informal sector employment increased by 165,000 over the same time,

The most significant increases in employment were recorded in the following categories:

• Community and social services (194,000)
• Construction (176,000)
• Trade (109,000).

Decreased in employment were recorded in:

• Finance (189,000)
• Private households (32,000)
• Manufacturing (20,000)
• Transport (18,000)

The results also showed that four provinces observed saw increases in employment: the Eastern Cape (83,000), Western Cape (75,000), North West (69,000), and Mpumalanga (49,000).

Decreases were, however, observed in Gauteng (66,000) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (2,000).

The youth (15 to 34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market despite the survey results showing that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 171,000.

The number of unemployed youth stood at 4.8 million, while the number of employed youth recorded an increase of 66,000 to 5.8 million.

Although the youth unemployment rate may have decreased from 46,6% in Q2 2024, it still stood at an incredibly high 45.5% in Q3 2024.

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