Unemployment rate rises to 33.6%: StatsSA
Statistics South Africa says the country's labour market has slipped further behind where it stood a decade ago, according to the latest figures.
South Africa's unemployment rate has increased by 0.9% to 33.6%.
Statistics South Africa says another 16,000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of the year.
Risenga Maluleke, Stats SA's Statistician-General, released the second-quarter labour force numbers for 2026 on Tuesday.
Maluleke says the latest figures show South Africa's labour market has slipped further behind where it stood a decade ago.
The number of unemployed people has increased by 345,000 to 8.5 million, while employment fell by 16,000 to 16.7 million.
"Let us look at those (who) are outside the labour force. Of course, the students have always led in this regard. They have gone up by one percentage point and quarter-on-quarter changes 101 000,” said Maluleke.
"The discouraged work seekers went down by 1.1% straight by losing 227,000 jobs.
"[Home-markers were] up by 0.2%, quarter-on-quarter changes 6,000."
Maluleke says a decade ago, the absorption rate was 42.5%, with a labour force participation rate of 57.9%.
