THE National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has raised concern at the increasing rate of youth unemployment.
The concern comes in the wake of the release of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the first quarter of 2019 by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday.
In a report, Stats SA said the country’s unemployment rate increased by 0.5 of a percentage point to 27.6 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2018.
Read also: Unemployment rate in SA increases to 27.6 per cent
The increase in the unemployment rate is a result of a decline of 237 000 in the number of people in employment and an increase of 62 000 in the number of people who were unemployed between the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.
“Last year this time, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported a staggering 34.2 per cent of persons aged 15 – 24 years, who were not in employment, education or training,” the NYDA said on Monday.
Stats SA reported that the number of employed persons decreased by 237 000 to 16.3 million in Q1 of 2019, while the number of unemployed persons increased to 62 000 to 6.2 million compared to Q4 2018.
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