SA unemployment rate increases to 33.5% in Q2

JOHANNESBURG - Stats SA says the unemployment rate has increased again, jumping to 33.5% in the second quarter of the year.

This is an increase of more than half a percentage point from the previous quarter.

Stats SA released the latest jobs numbers on Tuesday morning.

Almost 8,5 million people are still without a job in the country, revealed Stats SA.

This means thousands of jobs were shed in the previous quarter.

Director of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey at Stats SA  Dihlolelo Phoshoko says the expanded definition of unemployment has also increased.

“Discouraged work-seekers increased by 147 000 (up by 4,8%), while the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75 000 (down by 0,6%) between the two quarters. This led to an increase of 72 000 in the number of the not economically active persons to 16,3 million in the second quarter of 2024.”

NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM FOR SA

Some economic experts believe it’s not all doom and gloom as the country’s unemployment rate ticks up yet again.

This is the third consecutive increase – as the economy and labour market remain lacklustre.

Despite concerns about jobs shed in big industries, Standard Bank’s head of macroeconomic research – Elna Moolman – believes employment is set to remain resilient in the long term.

 “We think the employment have improved since the second quarter. We think GDP will already be stronger in the second quarter and generally, we expect an uptick in economic growth in the medium term and that should be positive from an employment perspective.”