Labour force survey: Unemployment decreases by 1.4%

The Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of the year shows a decrease of 1.4% in unemployment in South Africa, from 33.5% in the second quarter of 2024 to 32.1% in the third quarter.

According to Statistics SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force survey, the number of employed people increased by 294,000 to 16.9 million in the third quarter, while there was a decrease of 373,000 in the number of unemployed people to 8 million. In 2014, 5.2 million people in South Africa were unemployed.

This resulted in a decrease of 79,000 (-0.3%) in the labour force.

According to this graph from Statistics SA, 16.7 million people were employed in South Africa in the second quarter and 16.9 million in the third quarter.

This graph from Statistic SA shows how employment in South Africa changed from the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2024.

The number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 16,000 (+5%) and the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 54,000 (+0.4%) between the second quarter and third quarter of 2024.

This led to an increase of 214,000 in the number of people who are not economically active to 16.5 million. These people were students (37%), discouraged work seekers (20.4%), homemakers (13.6%) and too young or too old to work (10.9%), while 9.8% could not work due to illness or disability.

Statistics SA says the expanded unemployment rate in the third quarter decreased by 0.7% to 41.9% compared with the second quarter of 2024.

The expanded unemployment rate in South Africa is the unemployment rate that includes people who have given up looking for work.

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Employment in formal and informal sectors

The number of people employed in the formal sector increased by 122,000 in the third quarter and by 165,000 in the informal sector. In the third quarter, 11.6 million were employed in the formal sector, while 10.8 million were employed in the third quarter of 2014.

The largest increases in employment were recorded in community and social services, which added 194,000 jobs, construction which added 176,000 jobs, and trade which added 109,000 jobs.

However, 189,000 jobs were lost in finance. Private households shed 32,000 jobs, manufacturing saw 20,000 jobs lost, and transport shed 18,000 jobs.

In 204 2.4 million people were employed in the informal sector, while 3.3 million were employed in the third quarter of 2024. In 2014 1.2 million people were employed in private households, while 1.1 million now work in private households.

In agriculture, 686,000 people were employed in 2014, while this figure has now grown to 935,000 in 2024.

Statistics SA says the results also indicate that the largest increases in employment were observed in the Eastern Cape where 83,000 jobs were added, the Western Cape where 75,000 jobs were added, North West where 69,000 jobs were added; and Mpumalanga where 49,000 jobs were added.

On the other hand, Gauteng shed 66,000 jobs and KwaZulu-Natal 2,000.

Black African women continue to be the most vulnerable with an unemployment rate of 38.6% in the third quarter, 4.3% higher than the national average for women at 34.4%.

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Youth unemployment decreased

Although the youth between the ages of 15 and 34 remain vulnerable in the labour market, the Labour Force Survey for the third quarter shows that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 171,000 to 4.8 million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 66,000 to 5.8 million.

As a result, the youth unemployment rate decreased from 46,6% in the second quarter of 2024 to 45,5% in the third quarter.

Young people continue to have the largest unemployment rate, with 60.2% of those between the ages of 15 and 24 remaining unemployed and 40.4% of those between the ages of 25 and 34 remaining unemployed.

The graduate unemployment rate increased by 0.1% from 9.7% in the second quarter to 9.8%. Statistics SA says people with matric and less than matric remain vulnerable with unemployment rates of 34.1% for people with matric and 37.8% for those without matric.