South Africa’s official unemployment rate dropped by 0.2% to 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 32.1% in the previous quarter.

This is according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) yesterday.

The survey results indicate an increase of 132 000 people being employed, bringing the total to 17.1 million in the fourth quarter. The number of unemployed people decreased by 20 000 to eight million. This contributed to an overall increase of 112 000 (0.4%) in the labour force during the same period.

Despite these gains, the number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 111 000 (3.3%), while those who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 93 000 (0.7%). This led to an increase of 18 000 people who are not economically active in the population (16.5 million).

“The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing by 0.2% from 32.1% in the third quarter of 2024 to 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

“The expanded unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2024 remained unchanged at 41.9%, compared with the third quarter of 2024,” Stats SA said.

The number of people employed in the formal sector increased by 90 000 in quarter four of 2024, and informal sector employment increased by 34 000 over the same period.

The largest increases in employment were recorded in finance (232 000) and manufacturing (41 000).

Decreases in employment were recorded in community and social services (63 000), trade (48 000), construction (22 000), mining (18 000), utilities (17 000) and agriculture (11 000).

The results also indicate that the largest increases in employment were observed in Western Cape (62 000), KZN (52 000) and Gauteng (45 000), while decreases were only observed in Free State (25 000), North West (20 000) and Limpopo (16 000).

Stats SA said the youth, aged between 15 and 34, continue to face challenges in the labour market. The results for the fourth quarter of 2024 show that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 133 000, to 4.7 million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 37 000, to 5.8 million.

As a result, the youth unemployment rate decreased from 45.5% in the third quarter of 2024 to 44.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024. – SAnews.gov.za

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