JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s unemployment rate fell to 27.1 percent in the fourth quarter from 27.5 percent in the third quarter, official data showed on Tuesday.
There were 6.1 million people without jobs in the three months to the end of December, compared with 6.2 million people in the prior quarter, Statistics South Africa said its quarterly labour force survey.
The statistics office said employment rose in the finance, private households, manufacturing and mining sectors.
The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, fell to 37.0 percent in the fourth quarter from 37.3 percent in the previous quarter.
The Statistician-General of South Africa, Risenga Maluleke, releases the results of the Quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter of 2018 during a media briefing at Tshedimosetso House in Hatfield, Pretoria. South Africa. 12/02/2019. Siyabulela Duda
' #Education plays a critical role in being absorbed into the labour market' says @SGMaluleke as the latest #unemployment figures show lower #unemployment rates for those with a post-metric qualification #StatsSA https://t.co/tWhPpSBwsa
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) February 12, 2019
149 000 more people were #employed in Q4:2018 compared to Q4:2017, gains driven by the# finance, private households & #manufacturing industries. Biggest decrease recorded in service industry #StatsSA https://t.co/bpSqhOZfhF pic.twitter.com/5zacjzWmX2
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) February 12, 2019
Close to a third of #youth in SA were not in #employment, #education or training, up by 1,4 percentage points in Q4:2018 y/y #StatsSA https://t.co/bpSqhOZfhF pic.twitter.com/Z2vjknlpUj
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) February 12, 2019
16,5m people in SA were #employed in Q4:2018, up by 300 000 compared with Q4:2017 #StatsSA https://t.co/bpSqhOZfhF pic.twitter.com/grOkhvaUb3
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) February 12, 2019
The Statistician-General of South Africa, Risenga Maluleke, releases the results of the Quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter of 2018 during a media briefing at Tshedimosetso House in Hatfield, Pretoria. South Africa. 12/02/2019. Siyabulela Duda