According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), South Africa experienced a decrease in employment and a rise in unemployment in the second quarter of 2024.
The number of employed individuals dropped by 92,000, bringing the total to 16.7 million, while the unemployed population grew by 158,000 to 8.4 million, compared to the first quarter of 2024.
This shift resulted in a 0.6 percentage point increase in the official unemployment rate, which now stands at 33.5%.
The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate increasing by 0,6 of a percentage point from 32,9% in the first quarter of 2024 to 33,5% in the second quarter of 2024. In comparison to Q1 of 2024,
Discouraged work-seekers also saw a significant rise, increasing by 147,000 (4.8%), while those not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 75,000 (0.6%).
Overall, the labour force grew by 66,000, reflecting a 0.3% increase. The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers, rose by 0.7 percentage points to 42.6%.
This led to an increase of 72,000 in the number of the not economically active persons to 16,3 million in the second quarter of 2024.
Youth Capital Project Lead Kristal Duncan-Williams says while the unemployment rate has fluctuated by percentage points, over time, unemployment in South Africa has gotten exponentially worse.
They say the significant increase in the unemployment rate over the last decade indicates that interventions introduced to combat unemployment have not been working.
Clearly the interventions that have been put in place are not working to address the crisis and at the end of the day the majority of those left at the back of the queue in terms of jobs are young people particularly young black women
Duncan-Williams says unemployment is a complex issue and there is no silver bullet that will address the crises.
They explain while individual measures like NSFAS funding which allows students to obtain degrees, providing youth with work experience through public employment programmes and equipping them with soft skills are helpful in the fight against unemployment, it can only be effectively tackled by a growing economy.
economists are feeling positive that we will see some kind of uptick unfortunately you know that uptake is going to be marginal and we have to ensure that growth in the economy leads to jobs you know sometimes you get jobless growth and that's also not what we want
Duncan-Williams believes that increased exploration of the informal economy can provide an outlet for individuals to earn a living. However, they acknowledge bureaucracy and other challenges people face for those who want to trade informally.
It's [informal economy] a vastly untapped resource. We are an anomaly on the continent; most of our neighbours across the continent have much larger informal sectors than we have in South Africa. There is a history of overly burdensome and cumbersome restrictions placed on informal traders and so the Hoops that people have to go through to trade informally are often too high for people to jump through.
