South Africa’s unemployment rate decreased for the first time this year, dropping to 32.1 per cent in the third quarter, down from 33.5 per cent in the previous quarter, the country’s official statistics agency reported on November 12, 2024.Despite this improvement, economists believe that the economy still has a long way to go in terms of job creation, as the labour market still shows signs of volatility, with most jobs being created in government and the informal sector rather than in large companies.
South Africa’s unemployment rate eased to 32.1% in the third quarter of 2024, with the number of people employed rising by 294,000 to 16.9 million, after hitting a two-year high of 33.5% in the second quarter, According to Statistics South Africa in its quarterly Labour Force Survey on 12 November 2024. Employment in the formal sector rose by 122,000 and in the informal sector by 165,000. Notable increases were recorded in the community and social services sector, as well as in construction and trade.
In the second quarter it was 33.5%, so it’s now down to 32.1%, but that’s when we look at the official headline unemployment rate, when we look at the expanded unemployment rate, we take the 8.8 million people who are actively looking for work plus the 3. 4 million people who are discouraged from looking for work plus another 800,000 who for reasons other than discouragement weren’t looking for work but would have taken it had it been available, we come up with 12.2 million and that 12.2 million gives us an expanded unemployment rate of 41.9%.
Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General
Despite this improvement, economists believe that the economy still has a long way to go in terms of job creation, as the labour market still shows signs of volatility, with most jobs being created in government and the informal sector rather than in large companies.
As much as we appreciate and applaud this positive news, especially as it comes against a backdrop of about three quarters of a year ago when unemployment was rising, we need to do much more: the governor has done very well to end load shedding; we need to give more support to Eskom to ensure that there is reliable and affordable electricity at all times; much more needs to be done not only to stabilise transit, but to ensure that the freight railways, the port operations are fully modernised, because that’s the key to unlocking hundreds of thousands of jobs in mining, manufacturing and agriculture.
Mathew Parks, COSATU’s Parliamentary coordinator
It should be noted that this fall in unemployment comes three months after the formation of a coalition government, which experts say has boosted business confidence and raised hopes of further progress on economic reform. However, South Africa still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.
