By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) from Statistics South Africa shows that unemployment rate has increased once again, jumping to 33.2% in the second quarter of the year.
This is up from the 32.9% recorded in the first quarter of 2025.
The QLFS for the second quarter of the year revealed that the country saw 159,000 more people enter the workforce between April and June 2025.
However, only 19,000 were employed over the period, and 140,000 were unemployed.
The labour force participation rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 60.2%, while the absorption rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 40.2% from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2025, according to the statistics agency.
The expanded unemployment rate — which includes discouraged work seekers — eased to 42.9% compared with 43.1% during the first quarter of 2025.
Employment increased in four of the 10 industries. Gains were observed in the formal sector (up by 34 000) and private households (up by 28 000), as well as in the construction sector (20 000) and mining industries (3 000).
The largest decreases in employment were recorded in community and social services (42 000), followed by the finance and agriculture (24 000 each) as well as transport (15 000) industries. Jobs in the informal sector also fell by 19 000 during the period.
The data comes days after the kicking in of a 30% tariff imposed by the United States on local goods, which is slated to hurt South Africa’s jobs sector significantly, particularly in the agriculture, vehicle and steel industries.