Staff Writer | May 13, 2025
South Africa's official unemployment rate rose to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025, earning full points from the previous quarter.
This exceeded economists' expectations and softened a small climb of just 0.2 percent points.
The first quarter of the year has historically shown a decline in employment. Thousands of fresh enrollees and alumni are entering the job market as businesses are blocking recruitment during the festive season.
At 32.9%, the unemployment rate is exactly the same as in the first quarter of 2024.
According to results from STATS SA's Quarterly Workforce Survey (QLFS), in the first quarter of this year, 291,000 employers fell to 16.8 million from 17.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people has risen to 8.2 million, up 237,000.
This led to a 54,000 (down 0.2%) decrease in the labor force during the same period.
Disappointed workers increased by 7,000 (up 0.2%), while the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than disappointment increased by 177,000 (up 1.4%).
This has increased the number of economically inactive population to 16.7 million.
Due to the changes in employment and unemployment rates mentioned above, the official unemployment rate rose 1.0% from 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025.
The unemployment rate expansion in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 1.2 percentage points to 43.1%, when it was 41.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.
Stats SA said the biggest increase in employment has been recorded in transport (67,000) finance (60,000) and utilities (35,000).
Decreased employment was recorded in trade (194,000), construction (119,000), private households (68,000), community and social services (45,000), and mining (35,000).
The results also show that employment increases were observed in the Western Cape (49,000), Gauteng (9,000), and the free state (4,000).
Reductions were observed in Kwazulu-Natal (104,000), Eastern Cape (83,000), Northwest (57,000), Limpopo (55,000), Mpumalanga (43,000), and Northern Cape (12,000).
Youth unemployment remains a major issue in the country, with people aged 15-34 being extremely vulnerable in the labour market.
The first quarter results of 2025 show that the total number of unemployed youth increased from 151,000 to 4.8 million, while employed youth recorded a decline from 153,000 to 5.7 million.
As a result, youth unemployment rate rose from 44.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025.
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