South Africa’s unemployment rate fell to 33.9% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, from 34.5% in Q1 2022.
This was disclosed in South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released today.
The drop in the latest unemployment numbers is a welcome relief from the record highs reported for Q4 of 2021. This reduction in the unemployment rate was led mainly by job gains in the community and social services, trade, finance and construction sectors.
What you should know
- The report stated that 648, 000 more jobs were gained during the April to June period, bringing the total number of employed persons in the country to 15.6 million.
- Labour force participation rate increased by 1.7 percentage points from 56.9% in Q1 2022 to 58.6% in Q2 2022. Also, the number of Not Economically Active persons decreased by 635,000 in Q2 2022 compared to Q1 2022.
- The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers, offers more insight, with the Q2 2022 total coming in at 44.1%,1.4% points higher than the Q1 2022.
- In the second quarter, there were 183,000 fewer discouraged workers on South African streets, while the number of persons who were not economically engaged for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 452, 000.
- The formal sector in South Africa accounts for 68,1% of total employment. Formal sector employment increased by 420,000 jobs between Q1 2022 and Q2 2022.
- Graduate unemployment rate stood at 10.2%, 23.7 percentage points lower than the national official unemployment rate. Youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years recorded the highest unemployment rates of 61.4% and 41.2% respectively.
The report also stated that the Unemployment rate among the Black African (37.8%) population group remains higher than the national average and other population groups. The report also shows that Black African women are the most vulnerable with an unemployment rate of 39.3% in Q2 2022. This is 3.8 percentage points higher than the national average for women at 35.5%
