Pretoria: South Africa's official unemployment rate has increased by 0.9 percentage point from 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026 to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026.
According to South African Government News Agency, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) highlighted an increase of 345,000 in the number of unemployed persons, bringing the total to 8.5 million. In contrast, the number of employed persons decreased by 16,000, resulting in a total of 16.7 million employed individuals. This change led to a 1.3% increase in the labour force during the same period.
Stats SA reported that these shifts in employment and unemployment figures caused the official unemployment rate (Labour Underutilisation (LU1)) to rise by 0.9 percentage point. Industry employment gains were noted in Trade (70,000), Construction (39,000), and Finance (11,000). Conversely, Community and social services saw a decrease of 57,000, while Mining, Agriculture, and Manufacturing each decreased by 26,000 and 15,000, respectively.
The formal and household sectors experienced employment declines of 41,000 and 9,000, respectively, while the informal sector saw an increase of 34,000 in the second quarter of 2026. Among provinces, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, and Free State recorded employment increases, while Western Cape, Gauteng, and North West saw decreases.
The number of discouraged job-seekers dropped by 227,000 to 3.7 million, with other available job-seekers decreasing by 49,000 to 861,000. Unavailable job-seekers decreased by 4,000 to 44,000, leading to a net decrease of 280,000 in the potential labour force. Meanwhile, those outside the labour force for other reasons increased by 72,000, totaling 12.5 million.
Overall, the total number of individuals outside the labour force decreased by 208,000 to 17.1 million in the second quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, the total number of unemployed youth (aged 15-34) increased by 264,000 to 5.0 million, with employed youth decreasing by 40,000 to 5.6 million. Consequently, the youth unemployment rate climbed by 1.5 percentage points to 47.4% during this period.