Unemployed men wait on a street corner for part time work in central Johannesburg. (Photo by Naashon Zalk/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Unemployment increased to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2024 from 32.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023, Statistics South Africa said in its quarterly labour force survey on Tuesday.
This was the second consecutive quarter that unemployment increased, as more people of working-age entered the labour market.
According to StatsSA, the working-age population increased by 137 000 and the number of employed people increased by 22 000 bringing the total number of employed people in South Africa to 16.7 million.
But more losses were recorded for unemployment, which increased by 330 000 to 8.2 million from 7.8 million previously. The overall number of people who are not economically active is at 16.2 million currently.
The unemployment rate year-on-year remained the same.
In a note, Nedbank said the unemployment rate remains above levels before the Covid-19 pandemic because the economy is not growing fast enough to absorb new entrants — as well as the unemployed and discouraged workers — into the labour market.
The unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2020, just before the pandemic, was at 30.1% and reached an all-time high of 35.3% in Q4 2021.
In the first quarter of this year, major job losses were recorded in the community and social services sector, which shed 122 000 jobs, followed by the construction sector (106 000), finance (50 000) and utilities (17 000).
But jobs were added in the formal sector, which gained 56 000 jobs, as well as private households (44 000) and the agricultural sector (21 000).
The statistics come just two weeks before South Africa heads to the polls. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s governing ANC has promised to deliver five million work opportunities in the next five years through the expanded public works programme.
Nedbank noted that the rate of job creation would partly be contained by weak business confidence, subdued demand conditions and mounting concerns around policy uncertainty in the country.