Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke revealed during the latest report on the fourth-quarter labour force survey that unemployement continues to affect young people aged between 15 and 24 the most.
Youth unemployment, he said, remains the highest concern, with the labour force participation rate favouring older people more than the youth.
Here are other five takeaways from the labour suvery:
- The official unemployment rate has dropped by 0.5%, from 31.9% in the third quarter to 31.4%, and this was due to 44,000 more people being employed. Despite this improvement, nearly one in three South Africans remains unemployed.
- The Eastern Cape has the highest official unemployment rate at 42.5%.
- Among 15- to 34-year-olds, unemployment slightly increased to 43.8%, despite a decrease of 84,000 unemployed youth. At the same time, employed youth fell by 113,000 to 5.8-million, indicating persistent difficulty for young people in entering stable, sufficient employment.
- About 34% to 45% of the potential workforce is either stuck in part-time jobs, when they want full-time work, or have given up looking for a job entirely because they are discouraged.
- Employment increases were concentrated in Western Cape [+93,000], Mpumalanga [+37,000], North West [+36,000], and Northern Cape [+17,000]. Major declines occurred in Gauteng [-54,000], KwaZulu-Natal [-41,000], and Eastern Cape [-32,000], signalling uneven economic performance across provinces.
Sowetan
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