South Africa’s unemployment rate ticks higher
South Africa’s unemployment rate has jumped massively to 33.5%.
According to Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the official unemployment rate increased by 0.6 percentage points from 32.9% in Q1 2024 to 33.5% in Q2 2024.
More worryingly, the expanded unemployment rate in Q2 of 2024 increased by 0.7 percentage points to 42.6%.
Stats SA reported a 92,000 decrease in the number of employed persons to 16.7 million in Q2 2024.
However, there was an increase of 158,000 in the number of unemployed to 8.4 million compared to Q1:2024.
Discouraged work seekers also increased by 147,000 (up by 4.8%).
The number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75,000 (down by 0.6%) between Q1 and Q2.
This led to an increase of 72,000 not economically active persons to 16.3 million in Q2 2024.
Per Sector
Formal sector employment also decreased by 77,000 in Q2 2024, while informal sector employment increased by 48,000 over the same period.
Over the quarter, employment decreases were seen in the following industries:
- Trade (111,000),
- Agriculture (45,000),
- Private households (18,000),
- Construction (11,000) and
- Finance (9,000).
However, increases in employment were mainly recorded in:
- Manufacturing (49,000),
- Community and social services (36,000)
- Utilities (9,000).
The results showed that the most significant decrease in employment was observed in the Western Cape (65,000), Mpumalanga (50,000) and KwaZulu-Natal (49,000).
The most significant increases were seen in Gauteng (42,000), Limpopo (31,000) and Eastern Cape (25,000).
Women and youth take the brunt
Stats SA noted that women in South Africa continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of unemployment, underemployment and lower workforce participation compared to men.
“This is partly because women are more likely to take on household duties, child-rearing, and other responsibilities that limit their opportunities in the labour market,” said the statistics agency.
Comparisons between Q1 and Q2 2024 show that the total number of unemployed women increased by 93,000 to 4.1 million, while the number of employed women decreased by 28,000 to 7.4 million.
This increased the women’s unemployment rate from 35.2% in Q1 2024 to 35.8% in Q2 2024.
The trends in labour participation and absorption rates for men and women from 2014 to 2024 indicate that fewer women have participated in the labour market compared to men.
However, the data shows a general increase in labour force participation rates for both men and women between Q2 2014 and Q2 2024.
The increase was more substantial for women, rising by 4.9 percentage points from 50.9% in Q2 2014 to 55.8% in Q2 2024, indicating a narrowing of the gender gap in labour force participation.
However, from 2014 to 2024, men consistently reported higher absorption rates than women, with gender differences ranging from 9.0 to 12.5 percentage points.
The absorption rate for women was only 35.8% in Q2 2024, with the highest absorption rate for women being 38.3% in Q1 2017.
Youth also continue to battle high unemployment levels
Youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years continue to have the highest unemployment rates at 60.8% and 41.7%, respectively
Read: 26 mega-projects coming to South Africa – including a new airport and ‘city’
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