News24 | Unemployment rate jumps to 33.5%, 8.4 million South Africans now jobless

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South Africa's official unemployment rate increased from 32.9% in the first quarter of this year to 33.5% in the second quarter. 

This is the highest rate since 2022. Economists polled by Bloomberg expected unemployment to improve to below 32%.

Some 8.4 million people are now unemployed in South Africa – from 5.2 million a decade ago, Statistics SA reported. More than 76% of these people have been without a job for more than a year, compared to less than 66% in 2024.

Statistics SA says that 3.6 million (35.2%) out of 10.3 million young people aged 15 to 24 years were not in employment, education or training.

The expanded unemployment rate – which includes discouraged work-seekers who have given up on searching for a job – rose to 42.6% in the second quarter of 2024.

Of the provinces, North West (54.2%) had the highest expanded unemployment rate in the second quarter, followed by the Eastern Cape (49.7%). Limpopo recorded the highest difference between expanded and official unemployment rates of 15.7 percentage points.

The number of jobs in trade and agriculture declined, but manufacturing and informal sector employment made gains.

The formal sector accounts for almost 69% of total employment.

Unemployment among university graduates declined by 2.1 percentage points to 9.7% in the second quarter - and is lower than a decade ago (11.8%). The jobless rate among those with matric and less than matric is 35.8% and 39.3%, respectively.

The unemployment rate among black Africans (37.6%) remains higher than the national average and other population groups.