{"id":799403,"date":"2024-11-12T11:57:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=799403"},"modified":"2024-11-12T11:57:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:57:19","slug":"big-turn-for-unemployment-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/799403\/big-turn-for-unemployment-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big turn for unemployment in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s official unemployment rate has reached 32.1% for the third quarter of 2024\u2014improving by 1.4 percentage points over the previous quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the number of employed persons increased by 294,000 to 16.9 million in Q3 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was also a decrease of 373,000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.0 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stats SA said that resulted in a decrease of 79,000 (down by 0.3%) in the labour force during the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discouraged work-seekers increased by 160,000 (up by 5.0%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This led to 214,000 in the not economically active population to 16.5 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The expanded unemployment rate in Q3 2024 decreased by 0.7 percentage points to 41.9% compared to Q2 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-14.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"494\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-14-1024x494.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-799405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-14-1024x494.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-14-300x145.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-14-768x370.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-14.png 1199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The number of persons employed in the formal sector increased by 122,000 in Q3 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The informal sector employment increased by 165,000 over the same time, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most significant increases in employment were recorded in the following categories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li> Community and social services (194,000) <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Construction (176,000) <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trade (109,000). <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Decreased in employment were recorded in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Finance (189,000)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Private households (32,000)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manufacturing (20,000)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Transport (18,000)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decreases were, however, observed in Gauteng (66,000) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (2,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/799387\/another-company-in-business-rescue-saved-in-south-africa\/\">Another company in business rescue saved in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest data from Stats SA shows a significant improvement in South Africa&#8217;s employment figures\u2014but they still remain unacceptably high. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":771930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-799403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799403","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=799403"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799412,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799403\/revisions\/799412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}