The country’s unemployment rate has decreased by 0.5 percentage points from 31.9% in the third quarter of 2025 to 31.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
This is according to Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke, when he revealed the Quarterly Labour Force Survey conducted by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) in Pretoria.
The survey shows that there was an increase of 44 000 in the number of employed persons to 17,1 million, while there was a decrease of 172 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 7,8 million compared with the third quarter of 2025 results.
This resulted in a decrease of 128 000 in the labour force in the same period.
“During the same period, discouraged job-seekers increased by 233 000 to 3,7 million, other available job-seekers decreased by 110 000 to 855 000, and unavailable job-seekers decreased by 41 000 to 42 000, resulting in a total net increase of 82 000 to 4,6 million in the potential labour force population (i.e. persons who were available but not seeking or unavailable but seeking).
Other outside the labour force increased by 165 000 to 12,5 million. Outside the labour force, which is the total of the potential labour force and other outside the labour force, increased by 248 000 to 17,1 million in fourth quarter of 2025,” said Maluleke.
According to Maluleke, the number of persons employed in the formal sector increased by 320 000 during this period, and informal sector employment decreased by 293 000 over the same period.
“The largest increases in industry employment were recorded in Community and social service (46 000), Construction (35 000) and Finance (32 000).
Decreases in employment were recorded in Trade (98 000), Manufacturing (61 000) and Mining (5 000),” explained the Statistician-General.
The survey also indicate that increases in employment were observed in Western Cape (93 000), Mpumalanga (37 000), North West (36 000) and Northern Cape (17 000).
The largest employment decreases were recorded in Gauteng (54 000), KwaZulu-Natal (41 000) and Eastern Cape (32 000) during the same period.
Maluleke cautioned that the youth (15–34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market.
“The results for the fourth quarter of 2025 show that the total number of unemployed youths decreased by 84 000 to 4,6 million compared with third quarter, while employed youth recorded a decrease of 113 000 to 5,8 million.
As a result, the youth unemployment rate increased by 0,1 of a percentage point to 43,8% in the fourth quarter of 2025,” remarked Maluleke.
