Pixabay
South Africa’s unemployment rate fell to 33.9% in the second quarter of 2022, from 34.5% in Q1, led mainly by job gains in the community and social services, trade, finance, and construction sectors.
According to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), 648 000 more jobs were gained during the April to June period, bringing the total number of employed persons in the country to 15.6 million.
The unemployment rate decreasing, while the actual number of unemployed people increased, is explained by the working-age population increasing by 145 000 (0.4%) from Q1 to Q2 and “a large number of persons [who] moved from the ‘not economically active’ category to the ’employed’ and ‘unemployed’ statuses between the two quarters”, according to StatsSA.
The expanded definition of unemployment, which takes into consideration discouraged workers "also paints a slightly improved picture, with the Q2 figure coming in at 44.1%, 1.4 percentage points stronger than that reported in Q1.
There were 183 000 fewer discouraged workers on the streets of South Africa in Q2, while the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement also fell by 452 000.
Stats SA reports that the biggest job gains were reported in the community and social services sectors which employed 276 000 more people during the period.
The trade and finance sectors employed 169 000 and 128 000 more people respectively.
