SA unemployment rate increases to 0.6 in Q2

Lungile Ntimba

THE Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) results announced on Tuesday revealed that there was a decrease of 92 000 in the number of employed persons to 16,7 million in Q2:2024, while there was an increase of 158 000 in the number of unemployed to 8,4 million compared to Q1:2024.

This resulted in an increase of 66 000 (up by 0,3%) in the labour force in the same period.

Discouraged work-seekers increased by 147 000 (up by 4,8%), while the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75 000 (down by 0,6%) 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, the agency said.

The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate increasing