Pretoria: South Africa’s official unemployment rate saw a decrease of 0.5 percentage points, moving from 31.9% in the third quarter of 2025 to 31.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

According to South African Government News Agency, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the fourth quarter of 2025 conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) revealed these findings. The survey highlighted an increase of 44,000 in employed persons, reaching 17.1 million. Meanwhile, there was a reduction of 172,000 in the unemployed population, bringing the number down to 7.8 million compared to the previous quarter.

The labour force saw a decline of 128,000 during the same period. Additionally, the survey showed an increase in discouraged job-seekers by 233,000, totaling 3.7 million, while other available job-seekers decreased by 110,000 to 855,000. Unavailable job-seekers also saw a decrease of 41,000 to 42,000, resulting in a net increase of 82,000 to 4.6 million in the potential labour force.

Stats SA reported an increase of 165,000 in those outside the labour force, reaching 12.5 million. Overall, the total of the potential and others outside the labour force increased by 248,000, totaling 17.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Employment in the formal sector rose by 320,000, while informal sector employment decreased by 293,000 during the same period. The most significant industry employment growth was seen in community and social service (46,000), construction (35,000), and finance (32,000). However, there were declines in Trade (98,000), Manufacturing (61,000), and Mining (5,000).

Regionally, employment increases were noted in the Western Cape (93,000), Mpumalanga (37,000), North West (36,000), and Northern Cape (17,000). Conversely, Gauteng (54,000), KwaZulu-Natal (41,000), and Eastern Cape (32,000) experienced declines.

Youth employment figures showed a decrease of 84,000 unemployed youth, totaling 4.6 million, while employed youth declined by 113,000 to 5.8 million. Consequently, the youth unemployment rate increased slightly by 0.1438 percentage points to 43.8%.

The survey also examined other measures of labour underutilisation. The combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment (LU2) decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 34.3%. The combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force (LU3) fell by 0.3 percentage points to 42.1% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter of 2025. The composite measure of labour underutilisation (LU4), which includes time-related underemployment, unemployment, and potential labour force, was 44.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025.