{"id":730499,"date":"2023-11-11T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=730499"},"modified":"2023-11-10T17:16:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T15:16:30","slug":"warning-over-south-africas-unemployment-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/730499\/warning-over-south-africas-unemployment-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning over South Africa’s unemployment rate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The upcoming Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) is likely to show a marginal uptick, with the nation’s structural challenges hurting the labour market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest QLFS showed that the official unemployment rate dropped from 32.9% in Q1 2023 to 32.6% in Q2 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expanded definitions of the unemployment rate also dropped from 42.4% in Q1 2023 to 42.1% in Q2 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of employed persons also increased by 154,000 to 16.3 million in Q2, while the number of unemployed persons dropped by 11,000 to 7.9 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of South Africans who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement grew by 93,000 to 13.3 million, while the number of discouraged work-seekers declined by 94,000 in Q2 2023 compared to Q1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This caused a net decrease of 1,000 for the not economically active population.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Despite a slight improvement in Q2, Investec Economist Lara Hodes forecasts that the official unemployment rate for Q3 will be at 32.9% – returning to its Q1 2023 levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the unemployment rate has come down from the levels seen during the pandemic, it remains incredibly elevated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Moreover, the labour force participation rate remains below 60%, evincing the fragility of the South African economy, which is plagued by a number of structural challenges, significantly impeding activity and weighing heavily on confidence and growth,” Hodes said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The youth category, which comprises those aged 15-24 years, is the most disadvantaged segment of the economy when it comes to finding sustainable employment in this subdued market, with many lacking the necessary skills and experience.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Unemployment in this grouping did come down slightly in Q2.23 to 60.7% (from 62.1% previously) but remains at a critically elevated level. Improving the quality of and access to education and skills training programmes remains vital.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read<\/strong>: Massive visa backlog in South Africa \u2013 Home Affairs says it has a plan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s official unemployment figure is likely to grow – economists predict. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":647205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-730499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730499"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730541,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730499\/revisions\/730541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}