The rate of unemployment in South Africa eased slightly in the three months to the end of December buoyed by increasing jobs in the finance and manufacturing sectors.
Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday showed that the official unemployment rate fell by 0.2 of a percentage from 32.1% in the third quarter to 31.9% in the fourth quarter.
This marked the lowest jobless rate since the third quarter of 2023.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter, there was an increase of 132 000 in the number of employed persons to 17.1 million while there was a decrease of 20 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.0 million.
This resulted in an increase of 112 000 (up by 0.4%) in the labour force during the same period.
“The expanded unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2024 remained unchanged at 41.9% when compared with the third quarter of 2024,” Stats SA said.
Discouraged work-seekers increased by 111 000 (up by 3.3%), and the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 93 000 (down by 0.7%) between the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2024.
This led to an increase of 18 000 in the number of the not economically active population to 16.5 million.
The number of persons employed in the formal sector increased by 90 000 in the fourth quarter of 2024, and the informal sector employment increased by 34 000 over the same period.
Stats SA said the largest increases in employment were recorded in finance (232 000) and manufacturing (41 000).
However, the community and social services, trade, construction, mining, utilities and agriculture all recorded decreases in employment.
The youth (15–34 years) remained vulnerable in the labour market as the QLFS showed that the total number of unemployed youth fell by 133 000 to 4.7 million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 37 000 to 5.8 million.
As a result, the youth unemployment rate decreased from 45.5% in the third quarter of 2024 to 44.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024
BUSINESS REPORT