Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) has announced that the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, the official unemployment rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 33.5% in the second quarter of 2024
According to QLFS results, there was a decrease of 92 000 in the number of employed persons to 16,7 million in this period, while there was an increase of 158 000 in the number of unemployed to 8,4 million compared to the first quarter of this year. This resulted in an increase of 66 000 in the labour force in the same period.
“The survey also revealed that the numbers of discouraged work-seekers increased by 147 000, while the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75 000 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,” read a statement from StatsSA.
According to the agency, formal sector employment decreased by 77 000, while informal sector employment increased by 48 000 over the same period.
StatsSA highlighted that most of the decreases were recorded in the trade (111 000), agriculture (45 000), private households (18 000), construction (11 000) and finance (9 000) industries.
The survey recorded employment increases in manufacturing (49 000), community and social services (36 000) and utilities (9 000).
The results also indicate that the largest decreases in employment were observed in Western Cape, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal recorded the largest decreases in employment, while the largest increases were observed in Gauteng, Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces. The survey also indicated that that women continue to bear the brunt of unemployment in the country.
“Comparisons between the first quarter of 2024 and second quarter of 2024 results show that the total number of unemployed women increased by 93 000 to 4,1 million while the number of employed women decreased by 28 000 to 7,4 million. This resulted in the women’s unemployment rate increasing from 35,2% in first quarter of 2024 to 35,8% in the second quarter of 2024,” added the statement.
