Unemployment Rises Again as Economy Sheds 140,000 Jobs

The official unemployment rate increased again in the second quarter to 33.2% from 32.9% in the first quarter, with only 16.8 million people employed out of 41.8 million people of working age between the ages of 15 and 64.

- Ina Opperman

According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter issued by Statistics SA yesterday, the economy shed 140,000 jobs, pushing up the number of unemployed people to 8.4 million.

The survey shows that discouraged jobseekers decreased by 28,000 (down by 0.8%) and the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement remained unchanged between the first quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2025.

This led to a decrease of 28,000 in the number of people who are not economically active to 16.6 million. These changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate increasing by 0.3 of a percentage point from 32.9% in the first quarter to 33.2% in the second quarter of 2025.