The unemployment rate in South Africa declined to 33.9% in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, from 34.5% in the first quarter (Q1).
This was revealed in South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), which was published today.
The new unemployment figure is a welcome improvement from the high number announced for the fourth quarter of 2021. Job growth in the community and social services, trade, finance, and construction industries were mostly responsible for the decrease in the unemployment rate.
According to the data, 648, 000 new positions were created between April and June, increasing the total number of employed people in the country to 15.6 million.
The labor force participation rate climbed by 1.7 percentage points in Q2 2022, rising from 56.9% in Q1 2022 to 58.6%. In addition, the number of people who are not economically active fell by 635,000 in Q2 2022 compared to Q1 2022.
The enlarged definition of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers, provides further insight, with the total for Q2 2022 coming in at 44.1%, 1.4% higher than the total for Q1 2022.
There were 183,000 fewer discouraged workers on South African streets in the second quarter, while the number of people who were not economically engaged for reasons other than discouragement declined by 452, 000.
In South Africa, the formal sector employs 68.1% of the workforce. Between the first and second quarters of 2022, formal sector employment increased by 420,000.
The graduate unemployment rate was 10.2%, which was 23.7 percentage points lower than the official national unemployment rate. Youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years had the highest rates of unemployment, with 61.4% and 41.2%, respectively.
According to the survey, the unemployment rate among Black Africans (37.8%) remains higher than the national average and other population groups. The study also revealed that Black African women are the most susceptible, with a 39.3% jobless rate in Q2 2022. This is 3.8 percentage points higher than the national women’s average of 35.5%.
