By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South Africa’s unemployment rate edged higher to 33.7% in the third quarter of 2026, according to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released on Tuesday, 10 November 2026.
The survey showed that the number of employed people increased by 101,000 to 16.8 million. The number of unemployed people also rose, increasing by 97,000 to 8.6 million.
The labour force — people who are employed or unemployed and actively seeking work — grew by 198,000. The unemployment rate edged up by 0.1 percentage points from 33.6% in the second quarter, leaving just over one in three participants without work.
Discouraged job-seekers increased by 70,000 to 3.7 million, other available job-seekers decreased by 1,000 to 860,000, and unavailable job-seekers remained the same at 44,000.
This resulted in a net increase of 69,000, to 4.6 million, in the potential labour force—i.e., persons who were available but not seeking, or unavailable but seeking.
According to Stats SA, those outside the labour force for other reasons decreased by 150,000 to 12.4 million.
Persons outside the labour force, which is the total of those in the potential labour force and others outside the labour force, decreased by 82,000 to 17.0 million in the third quarter of 2026.
In addition to the unemployment rate, other indicators of labour underutilisation were measured.
The combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment decreased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 36.5%.
The combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force—most analogous to the historical measure of the ‘expanded unemployment rate’—increased by 0.2 percentage points to 44.0%.
The composite measure of labour underutilisation, which combines time-related underemployment, unemployment and potential labour force as a proportion of extended labour force, remained unchanged at 46.3%.
Between Q2 and Q3, the number of employed persons increased in seven of the ten industries.
The largest increases in employment were recorded in the Finance industry (111,000), followed by the Manufacturing (33,000), Mining (31,000) and Community and social services (20,000) industries.
Decreases in employment were recorded in Private households (68,000), followed by Agriculture (34,000) and Construction (8,000).
Compared with the same period last year, a net decrease of 215,000 in total employment was largely due to decreases in the number of persons employed in the Community and social services (197,000).
Private households (87,000), Construction (44,000) and Trade (33,000) industries were also hit hard.
Gains in employment were recorded in Finance (132,000), followed by the Mining (32,000) and Transport (11,000) industries.
Provincially, the largest employment increases were recorded in the Western Cape (48 000), North West (45 000), Eastern Cape (36 000) and Gauteng (25 000). Employment declined in the Free State (34 000) and Mpumalanga (30 000).
The number of unemployed youth aged 15–34 decreased by 23 000 to 5.0 million in the third quarter, while the number of employed youth fell by 5 000 to 5.5 million compared with the second quarter. The youth unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 47.3%.