South Africa’s unemployment rate drops

Statistics South Africa has published the results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for Q4: 2022, showing a small drop in the country’s unemployment rate.

The official unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 of a percentage point from 32.9% in the third quarter of 2022 to 32.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition of unemployment, also decreased by 0.5 of a percentage point to 42.6% in Q4:2022 compared to Q3:2022.

The results of the survey indicate that 169,000 jobs were gained between the third quarter of 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2022. The total number of persons employed was 15.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The number of unemployed persons increased by 28,000 to 7.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 95,000 to 13.4 million, and the discouraged work-seekers decreased by 151,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter resulting in a net decrease of 57,000 in the not economically active population.

According to Stats SA, the working-age population increased by 141,000 or 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the third quarter of 2022. Compared to Q4: 2021, the working-age population increased by 574,000 or 1.4%.

To better understand the observed large changes in key labour market indicators between Q3: 2022 and Q4: 2022, special tabulations were done to study movements between labour market statuses.

It was observed that a large number of persons moved from “not economically active” category to “employed” and “unemployed” statuses between the two quarters, which resulted in a decrease of 0.2 of a percentage point in the unemployment rate to 32.7%.

Industry performance

In terms of industries, the Finance (+103,000), Private households (+54,000), Trade (+52,000) and Transport (+43,000) sectors recorded the largest job gains.

Meanwhile, job losses were recorded in Community and Social Services (-122,000), Agriculture (-12,000) and Construction (-12 ,000).

The formal sector recorded an increase in employment of 143,000, and the Informal sector recorded a loss in employment of 15,000 between the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2022, Stats SA said.

Provincially, the number of employed persons increased in five provinces between Q3: 2022 and Q4: 2022.

Large employment increases were recorded in Western Cape (+167,000), North West (+23,000), Eastern Cape (+20,000) and Northern Cape (+12,000).

Employment losses were recorded in Limpopo (-20,000), Gauteng (-18,000), Mpumalanga (-13,000) and Free State (-3,000) during the same period.

Western Cape recorded the biggest quarter-to-quarter change in employment with an increase of 6.9%.

Compared to Q4: 2021, the largest increases in employment were recorded in Gauteng (+381,000), Western Cape (+333,000), Mpumalanga (up by 134,000), Limpopo (+133,000) and Eastern Cape (+132,000).

Northern Cape had the biggest year-on-year percentage change in employment with an increase of 27.0%, followed by Western Cape and Mpumalanga with increases of 14.7% and 12.7%, respectively.

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