Statistics SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey released the latest stats and South Africa has the highest unemployment rate which increased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 29.1% during the third quarter of 2019. According to the Statistician General RisengaMaluleke, this is the highest since the first quarter of 2008, and during this quarter the economy has seen 237 000 job losses.
Maluleke added, “Declines in employment in the third quarter were recorded in the manufacturing sector, which shed 30,000 jobs, followed by construction at 24,000, trade 21,000 and utilities 18,000. In the first quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate surged to 27.6%, with the economy.”
During the second quarter unemployment increased by 455 000 to 6.7 million compared to10 years ago when statistics rose to 4.3 million unemployed people. Statistics further elaborated that unemployment increased by 62.000 to 16.4 million and the working age population between 15-64 years old increased to 38.6 million in the third quarter.
“Employment increased in three sectors, with the formal sector recording the largest employment increase of 43,000 jobs, followed by agriculture and private households with 38,000 and 35,000, respectively,” concluded Risenga.
