SA unemployment declines a fraction to 26.5%
New job stats show that employment grew by 235,000 in South Africa in the fourth quarter of 2016, and the number of job seekers declined by 92,000 resulting in slight drop in the unemployment rate by 0.6 of percentage point to 26.5%.
Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey indicated that the growth in employment was mainly driven by the services industry which added 73,000 jobs, followed by transport and manufacturing which grew by 46,000, and 44,000 jobs respectively.
All other industries reported employment growth quarter to quarter except Mining and construction which declined by 17,000 and 9,000 respectively.
The official unemployment rate of 26.5% is still two percentage points higher compared to the same period last year.
South Africa’s unemployment rate for the third quarter of 2016 had climbed to 27.1% – thirteen year high.
The unemployment rate declined in four of the nine provinces with North West registering the biggest decline of 4.0 percentage points.
Other provinces which reported a decline in unemployment rates included Limpopo (2.6 percentage points), Western Cape (1.2 percentage points) and Gauteng (0.5 of a
percentage point).
The expanded unemployment which includes those who wanted to work but did not look for work decreased by 116,000, resulting in a decline of 0,7 of a percentage point in the expanded unemployment rate to 35.6%. However, this is still 8.9 million persons who did not have work but wanted to work.
StatsSA noted that education plays an important role in labour market outcomes, those with education level of less thanmatric contribute 59% of the unemployed with unemployment rate of 31.2%.
On the other hand the unemployment rate among graduates was 7% in Q4:2016, StatsSA said.
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