Statistics South Africa released its unemployment stats on Tuesday which indicates that employment decreased by 38,000 to 16,4-million and the number of unemployed persons increased by 344,000 to 7,1-million.
Stats SA says that a net decline in total employment in the first quarter of 2020 was mainly driven by decreases in the number of people employed in the formal sector (50,000) and Agriculture (21,000).
“On the other hand, employment in the informal sector and Private households increased by 3 000 and 30 000 respectively.”
According to StatsSA the number of employed persons decreased in five of the nine provinces, with the largest employment decreases recorded in Free State, North West, Western Cape and Limpopo.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, however, recorded employment gains.
