South Africa has witnessed a significant decline in its official unemployment rate, dropping from 32.6% in the second quarter to 31.9% in the third quarter of 2023.
- The number of employed individuals rose by 399,000, reaching 16.7 million in the third quarter, compared to 16.3 million in the previous quarter.
- The number of unemployed persons decreased by 72,000, totaling 7.8 million during the third quarter.
- The number of discouraged work-seekers decreased by 26,000, indicating improvements in power supply and lower transportation costs, encouraging individuals to actively seek employment.
- The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers, decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 41.2% in the third quarter.
- The finance industry led in job creation with 237,000 new positions, followed by community and social services with 119,000 and agriculture with 61,000. However, manufacturing and mining experienced job losses.
- The unemployment rate among youth (aged 15 to 34 years) decreased by 1.9 percentage points to 43.4% in the third quarter, with an increase of 237,000 employed youth.