Unemployment in South Africa is on the rise and on Tuesday, Stats SA published the latest figures from the second quarter (Q2).
What is the unemployment rate in South Africa?
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate increased by 1.8 percentage points, from 32.6% in the first three months of 2021, to 34.4% in Q2. This is the highest recorded quarterly unemployment rate since the survey was introduced in 2008.
Furthermore, according to the expanded definition — unemployed persons aged between 15 and 64 who aren’t actively looking for employment — the unemployment rate rose by 1.2 percentage points to 44.4% in Q2.
Based on findings, at least 54 000 South Africans lost employment in the second quarter, bringing the total number of employed persons to 14.9 million.
This added to the 584 000 unemployed persons that were recorded between April and July 2021. As a result, the total number of unemployed persons in South Africa rose to 7.8 million.
Moreover, Stats SA determined that more South Africans were discouraged about seeking employment in Q2 than they were at the start of 2021.
Highlighting the key statistics
As COVID-19 continues to plague South Africa’s efforts to regain momentum in building a flailing economy, a number of staggering figures taken from the survey highlight the true extent of the country’s woes.
Here are the key figures that stood out from Stats SA’s labour force survey for Q2:
- 3.3 million South Africans are actively choosing to not seek employment
- Eastern Cape is the highest contributor to the unemployment rate (47.1% – official; and 53% – expanded definition)
- Graduate unemployment rate was at 11% in Q2
- 64.4% of youths aged 15-24 were unemployed in the second quarter of 2021
- 42.9% youths aged between 25 and 34 were unemployed in Q2
- Unemployment in black South Africans is at 38.2%, the highest across race groups (mixed race – 28.5%, Indian/Asian – 19.5%, white – 8.6%)
- Unemployment in black South African women who are eligible for work stands at 41%, 4.2 percentage points higher than the national average.
Here are some of the reactions we picked out on social media:
South Africa does not have an unemployment issue, jobs are prioritized for Zimbabweans, malawaians, Mozambiqians, Congolese, Lesothos, same way pakistanians have dominated the township economy.
— Oom Kobus- Ubaba (@Lwatti_RedBerry) August 24, 2021
They all came with a plan, now South Africans are suffering in their own country.
And this is just the narrow definition of unemployment which excludes discouraged workers. When taken into account, the figure jumps to over 44% unemployment. #ANC leads ne?! https://t.co/ffM5NVUgmZ
— Ichumile Gqada (@NgcuzaG) August 24, 2021
SA highest unemployment in the world. Our answer will be to double down on the failed Marxist policies of the last 2 decades to hopefully eventually force a desirable result. "We've failed because we didn't enforce the failed policies hard enough logic." https://t.co/c5UoaBBRau
— Dwaine van Vuuren (@dwaine_van) August 24, 2021