Muthomi Ireri
South Africa’s unemployment rate rose by 0.6 percentage points, from 32.9% in Q1 2024 to 33.5% in Q2 2024, according to a report by the government’s statistics office on Tuesday.
The country, which is Africa’s most industrialized economy, has faced significant challenges in job creation in recent years, largely due to a prolonged recession and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report highlighted that approximately 8.4 million people were unemployed in Q2 2024, a sharp increase from 5.2 million in 2014.
The total number of employed individuals fell by 92,000, bringing the workforce down to 16.7 million. The sectors most affected by job losses were trade, agriculture, and construction, while only manufacturing, social services, and utilities saw job growth.
These figures are the first to be published since the May elections, which resulted in a coalition government committed to revitalizing the struggling economy. Unemployment was a central issue in the election, likely contributing to the African National Congress (ANC) losing its absolute majority.
The statistics office also noted that the most significant job losses occurred in the Western Cape, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
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