Riyaz Patel
SA’s official unemployment rate jumped to 29% in the second quarter of the year, the highest jobless rate since the start of 2008.
The unemployment rate increased by 1,4 percentage points from 27,6% in the first quarter of 2019 to 29,0% in the second quarter this year.
http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02112ndQuarter2019.pdf
This is as a result of an increase of 455 000 in the number of people who are unemployed and an increase of 21 000 in employment, Stats SA said Tuesday.
There are 6.7 million unemployed people in South Africa between the ages of 15 and 64 years, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter.
Key Findings:
- The total labour force – or all people who are employed and or actively seeking work – increased by 476 000 to 23 million.
- The working age population – or all those aged between 15 years and 64 years – increased by 150 000 in the second quarter to 38.4 million.
- Employment in the formal sector and in private households declined by 49 000.
- However, employment in the informal sector increased by 114 000, and in agriculture, by 5 000.
- The total number of people who are not economically active is 15.5 million. Of these, some 2.7 million are discouraged work seekers.
- Out of a total of 10.3 million young people aged between 15 and 24 years, the number who are not in employment, not in education and not in training decreased slightly to about 3.3 million. The unemployment rate for the youth is 56.4%
