Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has released its latest unemployment rate report, revealing that during the second quarter of the year, around 150,000 additional people in South Africa secured jobs compared to the first quarter. As a result, there was a slight decrease of approximately 0.3% in the unemployment rate.
As per the latest report from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA):
- More people got jobs in the second quarter of this year, compared to the earlier one.
- The number of people without jobs also went down by about 11,000.
- And here’s an interesting bit: there were 94,000 fewer discouraged job seekers in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the first, which resulted in a total decrease of 1,000 people not actively working.
- All these changes in employment and unemployment led to the official unemployment rate dropping a bit by 0.3% points. It went from 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023 to 32.6% in the second quarter.
- The unemployment rate including a wider group of people also dropped by 0.3 percentage points. It went from 42.4% in Q1:2023 to 42.1% in Q2:2023.
- During the same time frame, jobs in the formal sector went up by about 143,000, while informal sector employment dropped by 33,000.
Certain fields saw significant increases in employment:
- Construction gained 104,000 jobs
- Trade gained 92,000, and
- Community and Social Services gained 63,000.
However, there were job losses in:
- Manufacturing (96,000)
- Finance (68,000)
- Transport (7,000), and
- Utilities (6,000), as stated by Stats SA.
Although more young people found jobs in this period, the institution noted that youth are still at risk of unemployment.
Stats SA stated, “In the second quarter of 2023, the total number of unemployed youth [aged 15 to 34] decreased by 131,000 to 4.7 million, while the number of employed youth increased by 105,000 to 5.7 million. This led to a 1.1 percentage point decrease in the youth unemployment rate to 45.3%.”
The institution also highlighted sectors that saw significant gains in employment by province:
- Limpopo increased by 80,000 jobs
- Western Cape by 54,000, and
- KwaZulu-Natal by 48,000 in the second quarter of 2023.
However, Free State saw a decrease of 59,000 jobs, and Northern Cape decreased by 17,000 jobs during the same period.
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