Unemployment rises to 33.7% in South Africa
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Mail & Guardian
South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 33.7% in the third quarter of 2026, as job creation failed to keep pace with growth in the labour force. According to Statistics South Africa, 8.6 million people are jobless, and youth unemployment stands at 47.3%.
The number of people in employment in South Africa rose by 101,000 in the third quarter of 2026, to reach 16.8 million, according to Statistics South Africa, the country’s national statistics agency, which publishes its quarterly labour force survey on Tuesday. At the same time, the number of unemployed people rose by 97,000, to 8.6 million, so that the official unemployment rate moved from 33.6% to 33.7%.
The labour force, that is, people who are employed or actively seeking work, increased by 198,000 people. The formal sector created 268,000 jobs, bringing the total to 12.3 million posts, but these gains were largely wiped out by losses in the informal economy, where 98,000 jobs disappeared, and in employing households, which lost 68,000 posts.
The finance, manufacturing and mining sectors created jobs. The largest declines concern domestic workers, agriculture and construction. Regionally, the Western Cape, North West, Eastern Cape and Gauteng recorded the largest employment gains, while the Free State and Mpumalanga declined.
Unemployment among young people aged 15 to 34 fell by 0.1 percentage points, to 47.3%, or about five million people, but this decline does not reflect greater integration: youth employment fell by 5,000 people and the number of unemployed young people decreased by 23,000. The number of discouraged job seekers, who have stopped looking for work for lack of hope of finding it and are therefore not counted in the official rate, rose by 70,000.
