SA's unemployment rate rises to 32.9%

This is a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate.

Statistics South Africa announced the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in Pretoria on Tuesday.

It said that 291,000 more people were without work in the first quarter.

Speaking during the announcement, Stats SA General Risenga Maluleke said 8.2 million South Africans are jobless.

"The 8.2 million people who would have, these are people who are actively looking for employment. They represent an unemployment rate of 32.9%, which becomes our headline number - a rate for unemployment as of the first quarter of 2025.

"We also look at the not economically active in their entirety, we are saying that students. Quarter-on-quarter, we lost about 206,000. The others went up 7,000 with discouraged work seekers."

Maluleke added that youth unemployment remains one of South Africa’s most pressing challenges.

"In the North West and the Eastern Cape provinces, the plight of unemployed youth deepens into economic exclusion. The first quarter of 2025 saw North West record a youth unemployment rate of 58,8%, while only 43,0% of its young people aged 15 to 34 were active in the labour market.

"In the Eastern Cape, the picture is similarly serious, with an unemployment rate of 54,3% and the lowest youth labour force participation rate nationally at 39,8%, fewer than four in ten young people are either employed or looking for work."

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