By Marleny Arnoldi.
South Africa’s unemployment rate decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 32.1% in the third quarter, from 33.5% in the second quarter.
The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged work seekers, decreased by 0.7 of a percentage point to 41.9%, compared with 42.6% in the second quarter.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) finds in its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey that the number of employed persons increased by 294 000 to 16.9-million in the third quarter, compared with the second quarter.
There was also a decrease of 373 000 in the number of unemployed persons to eight-million in the quarter, resulting in a decrease of 79 000, or 0.3%, in the labour force.
Discouraged work seekers increased by 160 000, marking a 5% increase, while the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 54 000, or 0.4%, quarter-on-quarter.
This led to an increase of 214 000 in the number of the not economically active population to 16.5-million.
Notably, the number of people employed in the formal sector increased by 122 000 in the third quarter, while informal sector employment also increased by 165 000 over the same period.
The largest increases in employment were recorded in community and social services with 194 000 new jobs, followed by construction with 176 000 new jobs and trade with 109 000 new jobs.
Decreases in employment of 189 000, 32 000, 20 000 and 18 000 were recorded in the finance, private households, manufacturing and transport segments, respectively.
Stats SA also finds that the largest increases in employment in the third quarter were noted in the Eastern Cape with 83 000 new jobs, the Western Cape with 75 000 new jobs and North West with 69 000 new jobs.
Decreases in employment were, however, recorded in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with these provinces having lost 66 000 and 2 000 jobs, respectively.
Stats SA says young people between the ages of 15 and 34 remain the most vulnerable in the labour market, despite the third quarter labour force survey results showing the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 171 000 to 4.8-million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 66 000 to 5.8-million.
The youth unemployment rate decreased slightly from 46.6% in the second quarter to 45.5% in the third quarter.