FX.co ★ South Africa Jobless Rate Up to 32.9% in Q1

In the first quarter of 2025, South Africa's unemployment rate escalated to 32.9%, up from a previous low of 31.9% over the preceding three months. This increase was driven by a rise of 237,000 in the number of unemployed individuals, totaling 8.228 million. Concurrently, employment figures decreased by 291,000, reaching 16.787 million, while the labor force shrank by 54,000 to 25.015 million. Under the expanded definition of unemployment, which encompasses individuals disheartened from job searching, the rate advanced to 43.1% from 41.9% in the fourth quarter. Among the ten surveyed sectors, half experienced job losses. Notably, the trade sector lost 194,000 jobs, resulting in employment figures of 3.228 million, followed by the construction sector with a reduction of 119,000, bringing its total to 1.240 million, and private households with a decrease of 68,000, totaling 1.078 million. In contrast, sectors such as transportation and finance observed employment gains, with the transportation sector increasing by 67,000 to 1.131 million and finance by 60,000 to 3.008 million. Alarmingly, the youth unemployment rate—tracking job-seekers aged 15 to 24—rose to 62.4% in the first quarter of 2025, marking the highest rate since the first quarter of 2022, up from 59.6% in the previous timeframe.