The South African economy continued to shed jobs in the second quarter with unemployment increasing yet again.
The official unemployment rate in South Africa increased again in the second quarter by 0.6% to 33.5%.
There was a decrease of 92 000 in the number of employed people to 16.7 million, while there was an increase of 158 000 in the number of unemployed to 8.4 million compared to the first quarter, resulting in an increase of 66 000 (0.3%) in the labour force.
According to Statistics SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter, the number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 147 000 (up by 4.8%), while the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75 000 (down by 0.6%) between the two quarters, resulting in an increase of 72 000 in the number of the not economically active people to 16,3 million.
These changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate increasing by 0.6% from 32,9% in the first quarter to 33.5% in the second quarter of 2024. Compared to the first quarter, the expanded unemployment rate in the second quarter increased by 0.7% to 42,6%.
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