{"id":869695,"date":"2026-08-12T06:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T04:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869695"},"modified":"2026-08-12T06:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T04:50:31","slug":"big-changes-to-working-hours-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/869695\/big-changes-to-working-hours-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big changes to working hours in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s labour market has experienced a significant shift in the way people work, with short-hour and part-time employment growing much faster than the standard 40-hour week over the past 16 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was highlighted in the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) trends report published by Stats SA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The QLFS report showed that the labour market deteriorated in the second quarter of 2026, with employment falling and unemployment increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between April and June, the number of employed people decreased by 16,000 to 16.74 million, while the number of unemployed people increased by 345,000 to 8.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the official unemployment rate increased by 0.9 percentage points to 33.6%, up from 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deterioration is also reflected in broader measures of labour-market distress. The labour force participation rate increased slightly to 59.6%, while the employment-to-population (absorption) rate declined to 39.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broader underutilisation measures show that the problem extends beyond people who are officially unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LU2 rate, which combines unemployment with time-related underemployment, reached 36.6%. LU3, which includes the unemployed and people available for work but not actively looking, stood at 43.8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broadest measure, LU4, which captures total labour underutilisation, remained extremely high at 46.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longer-term working-hours figures provide an important indication of how the structure of employment has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the first quarter of 2010, the number of people working fewer than 15 hours a week has increased from 253,000 to 456,000 in the second quarter of 2026. That represents an increase of 80.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number working between 15 and 29 hours a week also increased substantially from 812,000 in 2010 to 1.14 million in 2026, a 40.1% increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These increases are significant because they have outpaced overall employment growth over the same period. They also contribute directly to time-related underemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA defined people in time-related underemployment as employed people \u201cwho were willing and available to work additional hours, whose total number of hours actually worked during the reference period was below 35 hours per week\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that having a job does not necessarily translate into having enough work or earning enough income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below outlines this dramatic shift, presenting all numbers in millions of persons (rounded to two decimal places):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working hours<\/th>Q1 2010
(Millions of Persons)<\/th>		Q2 2026 (Millions of Persons)<\/th>Net Change
(Millions of Persons)<\/th>		% Change (2010 to 2026)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Less than 15 Hours<\/strong><\/td>0.25<\/td>0.46<\/td>+0.21<\/td>+80.2%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
15 \u2013 29 Hours<\/strong><\/td>0.81<\/td>1.14<\/td>+0.33<\/td>+40.1%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
30 \u2013 39 Hours<\/strong><\/td>1.03<\/td>1.09<\/td>+0.06<\/td>+5.8%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
40 \u2013 45 Hours<\/strong> (Standard)<\/td>7.48<\/td>9.53<\/td>+2.05<\/td>+27.4%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
More than 45 Hours<\/strong><\/td>4.22<\/td>4.53<\/td>+0.31<\/td>+7.3%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Total Employment<\/strong><\/td>13.80<\/strong><\/td>16.74<\/strong><\/td>+2.94<\/strong><\/td>+21.3%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not about finding a job, it’s about finding enough hours of work <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The growth in shorter-hour employment suggests that a growing number of workers may be working fewer hours than they would like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, standard full-time employment remains the dominant form of work. The number of people working between 40 and 45 hours a week increased from 7.48 million in the first quarter of 2010 to 9.53 million in the second quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That represents growth of 2.05 million jobs, or 27.4%, with this category accounting for about 57% of all employed people in the latest quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the number of people working more than 45 hours a week has grown far more slowly. It increased from 4.22 million in 2010 to 4.53 million in 2026, representing a growth of only 7.3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall picture is that South Africa has seen a structural change in working hours, with standard full-time employment continuing to dominate, while shorter-hour work is expanding at a much faster rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many workers in South Africa, the challenge is not necessarily finding a job, but finding enough hours of work to sustain a living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An analysis of labour trends from early 2010 to mid-2026 shows a significant shift in the distribution of working hours across the South African workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":864078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2087401453035872577","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2173721253448274","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18335282344254512","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22073,853,1809,11250],"class_list":["post-869695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-quarterly-labour-force-survey-qlfs","tag-south-africa","tag-stats-sa","tag-working-hours"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869695","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869695"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869798,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869695\/revisions\/869798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}