Statistics SA has revealed that the country's official unemployment rate, during the third quarter of 2023 decreased by 0,7% taking it to 31,9 % from 32,6% in the second quarter . This means the number of employed people in the country surpassed the pre-Covid level in the third quarter of this year. The statistics were released today during the Quarterly Labour Force Survey.
UNEMPLOYMENT DECLINE
Statistician Risenga Maluleke said this means that the remaining 7.8 million people have not been absorbed into the job market. He added that both the absorption rate and the labour force participation rate increased by 0,9 percentage points as well as 0,6 percentage points respectively. "The number of those who were employed increased by 399 000 between the two quarters and those unemployed by 72 000.' He said the largest industry gains in employment occurred in finance with 237 000 jobs gained. Community and social services gained 119 000 jobs and 61 000 jobs gained in agriculture. Maluleke added that the number of people who were not economically active decreased by 160,000 to 13.1 million.
IMPROVEMENTS
Maluleke also said that the youth remain vulnerable in the labour market as the unemployment rate has remained above 40% for the past 14 quarters. Statistics SA has shown that two out of every five citizens or 11,7million have been without a job for the past three and a half years. "However, the third quarter of 2023 results show that the total number of unemployed youth (15-34 years) decreased by 174 000 to 4,6 million while there was an increase of 237 000 in the number of employed youth to 6,0 million. This resulted in a decrease in the youth unemployment rate by 1,9 percentage points from 45,3% in Q2:2023 to 43,4% in Q3:2023," explained Risenga. He said employment in KwaZulu-Natal was up by 152 000, Limpopo up by 70 000, North-West up by 61 000 and Mpumalanga up by 44 000, were recorded to be the largest employment increases Q3:2023. "Employment losses were only recorded in Free State (down by 3,000) during the same period," he said.
