South Africa’s official unemployment rate has dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 32.1% in the previous quarter.
This is according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday.
Labour force
The survey results indicate an increase of 132 000 in the number of employed persons, bringing the total to 17.1 million in the fourth quarter.
At the same time, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 20 000 to 8 million.
This contributed to an overall increase of 112 000 (0.4%) in the labour force during the same period.
Despite these gains, the number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 111 000 (3.3%), while those who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 93 000 (0.7%).
This led to an increase of 18 000 in the number of the not economically active population to 16.5 million.
“The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing by 0.2 of a percentage point from 32.1% in the third quarter of 2024 to 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
“The expanded unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2024 remained unchanged at 41.9% when compared with the third quarter of 2024,” Statistics South Africa said.
The number of persons employed in the formal sector increased by 90 000 in quarter four of 2024, and the informal sector employment increased by 34 000 over the same period.
Provinces ranked
The largest increases in employment were recorded in finance with 232 000 and manufacturing with 41 000. Decreases in employment were recorded in community and social services at 63 000, trade at 48 000, construction at 22 000, mining at 18 000, utilities at 17 000 and agriculture at 11 000.
The results also indicate that the largest increases in employment were observed in Western Cape at 62 000, KwaZulu-Natal at 52 000 and Gauteng at 45 000, while decreases were only observed in Free State at 25 000, North West at 20 000 and Limpopo at 16 000.
Stats SA added that the youth aged between 15-34 years continue to face challenges in the labour market. The results for the fourth quarter of 2024 show that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 133 000 to 4.7 million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 37 000 to 5.8 million.
As a result, the youth unemployment rate decreased from 45.5% in the third quarter of 2024 to 44.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
