By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South Africa’s official unemployment rate has pulled back slightly, falling to 32.6% of the labour force in the second quarter of 2023.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke released the latest employment and unemployment figures in Tshwane on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition, decreased by 0,3% to 42,1% in the second quarter of 2023, compared to the first quarter.
Additionally, the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 93 000 to 13,3 million. The discouraged work-seekers decreased by 94 000 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2023, resulting in a net decrease of 1 000 in the not economically active population.
“The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing by 0,3 of a percentage point from 32,9% in the first quarter of 2023 to 32,6% in the second quarter of 2023,” said the director of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey Dihlolelo Phoshoko.
Employment has been on the increase since the fourth quarter of 2021 following job losses brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It increased in the second quarter by 154 000 to 16,3 million, almost at pre-Covid levels of 16.4 million.
Some analysts were expecting a slight fall in the unemployment rate, although they flagged continued constraints on job growth. Chief among these impediments is load-shedding, which has dampened the GDP growth outlook compared with the beginning of the year.
South Africa’s economy is only slightly bigger than it was prior to the pandemic, registering what some have described as a “stop-start” recovery since the second half of 2020.
That said, some analysts have raised — albeit only moderately — their GDP forecasts on the back of the economy’s resilience in the first half of the year.
Industry performance
Stats SA said that formal sector employment increased by 143,000 in Q2 2023; however, informal sector employment dropped by 33,000 over the same period.
Overall, five of the nine sectors looked at by Stats SA saw employment increases.
Construction (104,000), Trade (92,000), and Community and Social Services (63,000) saw the most significant gains in employment.
On the other hand, Manufacturing (96,000), Finance (68,000), Transport (7,000) and Utilities (6,000) saw the biggest declines.
Provincial performance
Provincially, seven provinces saw improvements in their employment numbers.
Limpopo, the Western Cape (up by 54,000) and KwaZulu-Natal (up by 48,000) saw the biggest increase in employment numbers.
Decreases were, however, noted in the Free State (down by 59,000) and Northern Cape (down by 17,000).
Youth crisis
Although the youth are still incredibly vulnerable in the labour market, the number of unemployed youth aged 15 to 34 declined by 131,000 to 4,7 million.
There was also an increase of 105,000 in the number of employed youth to 5.7 million over the same period.
The youth unemployment rate thus dropped by 1.1 percentage points to 45.3% in Q2 2023.
This is, however, far higher than the 23% seen for the 35 to 64 age segment.
Business leaders earlier this month told President Cyril Ramaphosa that the jobless rate could rise to 38.1% by 2030 without urgent action to solve the country’s energy, logistics and crime crises.