South Africa’s unemployment rate surged more than expected to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026 from 31.4% in the last three months of 2025, with young people yet again bearing the brunt of the national scourge.
The total number of employed people in the country decreased by 345,000 to 16.8-million, while that of people without jobs rose 301,000 to 8.1-million during the period, Stat SA said on Tuesday.
The number of discouraged job-seekers was up 178,000 to 3.9-million, other available job-seekers increased by 55,000 to 910,000, and unavailable job-seekers increased by 6,000 to 49,000, resulting in a total net increase of 240,000 to 4.9-million in the potential labour force population.
Seven of the 10 industries surveyed shed jobs, with the largest decreases in employment recorded in community and social services, (206,000), construction (110,000), transport (30,000) and private households (28,000).
Bucking the trend, the key manufacturing sector added 38,000 jobs, while mining gained 32,000 and agriculture saw 10,000 more people employed in the first quarter.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said it was still too early to assess the effects on South African jobs of the Middle East crisis, which has pushed production costs for businesses significantly higher thanks to more expensive fuel, particularly diesel.
“In measurement, there’s always a lag. The shocks in the Middle East started [being sustained] in March, and this was our concluding month in the field. So it’s still too early to tell. We will know in future quarters if there’s any effect,” he said.
The data again showed young people being hardest hit, with the total number of those between the ages of 15 and 34 who have no jobs rising 181,000 to 4.7-million in the first quarter.
Employment in that cohort fell by 258,000 to 5.6-million, resulting in the youth unemployment rate rising two percentage points to 45.8%.
“Young people aged 15 to 34 years are [more] vulnerable to labour markets compared to those in older age cohorts. For those that are 35 to 64 years, the unemployment rate is sitting at 23.4% whereas that of young people 15 to 34 years is sitting at 45.8%,” Maluleke said.
The increasing use of AI in South Africa has left thousands of young prospective employees at a disadvantage because they lack the basic skills in that field that are now being demanded by employers, an industry expert said recently.
Data from the Centre for Development and Enterprise shows that nearly half of South African graduates are unemployed or underemployed within the first year of graduating.
In his state of the nation address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the country’s chronic joblessness and the struggle for young people in particular to secure their first job was a national concern.
Tuesday’s data showed that the number of people employed in the formal sector fell by 189,000 in the first quarter, while informal sector jobs were down 127,000.
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