South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased to 33.5% in the second quarter of 2024, marking a 0.6 percentage point rise from the previous quarter, according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). This increase reflects ongoing challenges in the country’s labor market, as the number of unemployed individuals grew by 158,000 to reach 8.4 million.
The survey also noted a decline in employment, with 92,000 fewer people holding jobs in the second quarter compared to the first, bringing the total number of employed persons down to 16.7 million. Despite this drop, the labour force grew slightly by 66,000 individuals, a 0.3% increase.
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Discouraged work-seekers
The number of discouraged work-seekers—those who have given up looking for employment—increased significantly by 147,000, a 4.8% rise. Meanwhile, the number of people not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75,000. These changes contributed to an overall increase in the not economically active population, which now stands at 16.3 million.
The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged work-seekers, also saw a rise, reaching 42.6%—up 0.7 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Dr. Elna Moolman, Head of South Africa Macroeconomic Research at Standard Bank Group, commented on the survey’s findings, stating, “Stat SA’s household based employment survey shows the decline of just more than half a percent in total employment in the second quarter, relative to the first quarter.
Seasonal patterns
“This data isn’t adjusted for seasonal patterns. But even once we do our own adjustment for such seasonal patterns, employment is still lower in the second quarter than in the first quarter though it remains higher than the preceding trend,” she said.
“And for example, on a year on year basis, we have nearly 2% total employment growth. The data can be a little bit volatile and so we wouldn’t want to over emphasize the measure to decline in second quarter employment. So we’ll monitor the trends from here onwards.
“We think that GDP would have improved in the second quarter. And generally we expect an upward trend in economic growth and that should ultimately be positive for employment,” she continued.
However, despite this cautious optimism, the latest figures highlight the persistent struggles within South Africa’s labour market, underlining the need for sustained efforts to create more job opportunities and support economic growth.
