South Africa’s official unemployment rate has fallen in every quarter since 2022, according to data released on Tuesday.
Statistics South Africa’s quarterly labor force survey showed that the official unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 32.7% in the last quarter of 2022 – the fourth consecutive decline.
This is 169 000 jobs were gained between the third and fourth quarters, putting the total number of people employed at 15.9 million. The number of unemployed people also rose, albeit slightly, to 7.8 million.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate in the country rose to 35.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021. During the quarter, 14.5 million people were employed, while 7.9 million were unemployed.
According to Stats SA data, the expanded unemployment rate – which also counts job seekers who have given up their search – was 42.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 43.1%.
The majority of jobs created in the quarter were in the financial services industry, which employs another 103,000 people. But society and the social service industry lost 122 000 jobs.
South Africa has struggled to make up for lost jobs in the first months of the pandemic in 2020, when 2.2 million people were out of work. In the next quarter, the official unemployment rate rises to a record level, until the beginning of 2022.
Despite the decline, the unemployment rate is still above the pre-pandemic level of 30.1% – and could remain elevated as the country’s energy crisis continues to worsen.
In its recently released budget review, the treasury predicted that growth would grow at a modest 1.4% over the next three years. The economy is expected to grow by 0.9% in 2023.
For unemployment to fall sustainably, the economy must grow at least 5% a year.