JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s unemployment rate surged to 29 percent in the second quarter of the year, the highest since the first quarter of 2003 as the economy continues to shed jobs across the board.
Statistics South Africa said the number of unemployed persons increased by 455 000 to 6,7 million in the second quarter of 2019 compared to the previous quarter.
“The South African working-age population increased by 150 000 in the second quarter compared to the first quarter,” the Stats agency said.
“The results further indicate that the number of discouraged work-seekers decreased by (248 000) and the other not economically active population by 77 000 resulting in the net decrease of 326 000 in the number of those who were not economically active.”
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/unemployment?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#unemploymentrate increased to 29,0% in Q2:2019, up by 1,4 percentage points from Q1:2019. This is the highest level recorded since the introduction of the QLFS in 2008. The highest level was 29,3% in March 2003 #StatsSA https://t.co/yyznAhpneT pic.twitter.com/noSNDr00dP
— Stats SA (@StatsSA)
The working-age population increased by 150,000 or 0.4 percent compared to the first quarter. The number of employed people increased to 16.3 million while that of the jobless climbed by 455 000 to 6.7 million.
Employment increased in two of the four sectors, with the informal sector recording the largest gain of 114,000 followed by agriculture with 5,000. The formal sector and private households declined by 49,000 each.
"The number of discouraged work-seekers and the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 248,000 and 77,000, respectively, between the first and the second quarters of 2019," Stats SA said.
This resulted in a net decrease of 326,000 in the not economically active population.