SA’s deepening unemployment crisis expected to pressurise Godongwana spending plans
South Africa's official unemployment rate increased again when Stats SA announced the latest results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey on Tuesday.
FILE: Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Picture: GCIS
JOHANNESBURG - The country’s deepening unemployment crisis is expected to pile pressure on Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana's spending plans on Wednesday.
South Africa's official unemployment rate increased again when Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) announced the latest results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey on Tuesday.
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It breached the 32% mark in quarter four of 2023, increasing for the first time since the beginning of 2023.
Community and social services, construction, trade, agriculture, and manufacturing shed the most jobs.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said: "The number of employed people went down by 22,000, whereas the number of unemployed people went up by 46,000 – returning 16.7 million employed people and 7.9 million unemployed people, respectively."
However, Maluleke said there was some reprieve in the employment sector.
"Finance, up by 128,000, transport, up by 57,000, mining, up by 37,000, and private households, up by 18,000, [were the sectors] that recorded the largest employment gains. But those were not enough to offset the job losses that we have seen."