South Africa’s unemployment rate has remained the highest in the world in the three months to March, as the country battled a number of economic headwinds.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) today said the rate of unemployment inched up slightly by 0.2 of a percentage point from 32.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023.
This comes as the economy likely entered a technical recession due to intensified rolling power cuts with Eskom implementing Stage 6 load shedding, crippling growth and investment prospects.
Stats SA released the results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the first quarter of 2023.
The QLFS showed there were 179 000 more people who were unemployed in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter.
This has put the total number of unemployed workforce at 7.933 million.
However, the number of employed persons increased by 258 000 to 16.2 million in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
As a result, the unemployment rate according to the expanded definition decreased by 0.2 of a percentage point to 42.4% in the first quarter, down from 42.6% in the fourth quarter.
Additionally, the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 209 000 to 13.2 million.
The discouraged work-seekers decreased by 87 000 in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 resulting in a net decrease of 296 000 in the not economically active population.
Stats SA said the formal and informal sectors recorded increases in employment of 209 000 and 107 000, respectively.
Finance, community and social services, and agriculture recorded the largest employment gains, however, private households, trade, mining, construction and manufacturing recorded job losses.
The youth remained vulnerable in the labour market, with the first quarter of 2023 results showing that the total number of unemployed youth (15 - 34 years) increased by 241 000 to 4.9 million, while there was an increase of 28 000 in the number of employed youth to 5.6 million during the same period.
This resulted in an increase in youth unemployment rate by 1.1 percentage points to 46.5% in the first quarter.
BUSINESS REPORT