The official unemployment rate has slightly decreased by one percentage point to 32.9% in the last quarter of 2022, with some 204 000 job gains during the last quarter – a year-on-year decrease of about two percentage points.
This is according to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by the agency on Tuesday.
“The number of unemployed persons decreased by 269 000 to 7.7 million and discouraged work-seekers also decreased by 54 000 to 3.5 million in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter.
“The number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 264 000 between the two quarters, resulting in a net increase of 210 000 in the not economically active population.
“The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing… from 33.9% in the second quarter of 2022 to 32.9% in the third quarter of 2022.
“The unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition of unemployment, also decreased by 1 percentage point to 43.1%. This is reflective of the fact that people were available for work but did not actively look for work.
“All provinces recorded a decrease in the expanded unemployment rate, except in the North West, Limpopo and Free State, where it increased by 4.1 percentage points, 2.4 percentage points and 0.5 of a percentage point respectively.
“The largest decrease was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal (down by three percentage points), followed by Western Cape and Gauteng (down by 1.8 percentage points each) and Mpumalanga (down by 1.6 percentage points),” Stats SA said.
Stats SA emphasised that although youth unemployment also recorded a 1% decrease, this group still remains vulnerable.
“The third quarter of 2022 results continue to show that the youth (aged 15 – 34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market, with an unemployment rate of 45.5%. The total number of unemployed youth decreased by 182 000 to 4.6 million in [the third quarter]. There was an increase of 25 000 in the number of employed youth during the same period,” Stats SA said.
According to Stats SA, employment gains were recorded in several industries, which brought the total number of employed persons in South Africa up to some 15.8 million.
“[Some] 204 000 jobs were gained between the second quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2022. The total number of persons employed was 15.8 million in the third quarter of 2022.
“Manufacturing (123 000), Trade (82 000), Construction (46 000) and Transport (33 000) recorded the largest job gains, while job losses were recorded in Finance (80 000), Private households (36 000) and Mining and Agriculture (1 000) each. Sectors that recorded job increases were the formal and informal, with 235 000 and 6 000 respectively,” Stats SA said.
