SOUTH Africa’s unemployment rate of 32,5% is the highest since 2008, with the number of unemployed people increasing by 701 000 to 7,2-million in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to the third quarter of 2020.
This is according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter of 2020, which also showed that the number of employed persons increased by 333 000 to 15-million.
There was an increase of 1-million (up by 4,9%) in the number of people in the labour force.
The number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 235 000 (8,7%), and the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 1,1-million (7,4%) between the two quarters, resulting in a net decrease of 890 000 in the not economically active population.
The movement was proportionately more towards the unemployed than for the employed, which resulted in a significant increase
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