The unemployment rate among black South Africans had dropped over the past four years but blacks still lagged far behind whites in the employment stakes, Stats SA’s labour force survey has found.
The unemployment rate for black men had dropped from 31,5% in September 2001 to 26,6% last September, according to the survey, released in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Unemployment was found to be highest, by population group and gender, among black women at 37,1%, having dropped from 40,7% in September 2001.
The rate was lowest for white men at 3,6%, having dropped from a four-year high of 5,1% in 2004.
The unemployment rate for coloured men had increased from 19,5% in September 2001 to 20,6% last year. This was the only group for which unemployment rates showed an increase.
Indian and Asian men’s unemployment rate decreased from 15,7% to 14% in the same period.
Unemployment rates for coloured, Indian/Asian and white women all dropped from 2001’s figures to 24,6%, 18,6% and 6,9% respectively.
The overall unemployment rate remained almost unchanged between September 2004 and 2005.
”The unemployment rate has increased only slightly by 0,5% from 26,2% in September 2004 to 26,7% in September 2005,” said Liz Gavin, acting deputy director-general of population and social statistics.
The figures, which were collected from interviews with members of over 30 000 households, found more than 12-million South Africans had jobs in September last year.
This brought the percentage of working age South Africans (between 15 and 65) to over 40%, Gavin said.
Half of the 1,1-million new jobs created between September 2001 and September 2005 were in the trade sector, Gavin said.
Overall unemployment rates for women remained higher than those for men, with 31,7% of economically active women being unemployed in September 2005, compared to 22,6% of men.
The Western Cape had the lowest unemployment rate in September at 18,9%, followed by Gauteng at 22,8%.
KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State had the highest unemployment rates at 32,8% and 30,2% respectively.
Age was another factor in unemployment, with the youth being more likely to be unemployed.
”There is a strong association between age and unemployment. The youngest groups of the economically active, those between 15 and 34 years old, show the highest unemployment rate,” said Gavin.
Figures showed of the 4 487 000 unemployed people in the country, 1 501 000 were in the 15-24 age group and 1 809 000 in the 25-34 group.
There were 356 000 unemployed aged between 45 and 54 and 100 000 unemployed between the ages of 55 and 65. – Sapa