Unemployment rate in SA drops by 1% in the 3rd Quarter

SA's official unemployment rate decreased by 1,0 percentage point at the end of September.

Unemployment dropped from 33,9% in the second quarter of 2022 to 32,9% in the third quarter of 2022. This is according to the Stats SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey covering the third quarter of the year, which showed that 204,000 jobs were gained between the second quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2022.

The jobs were gained mainly in manufacturing.

The number of unemployed persons decreased by 269,000 to 7,7-million and discouraged work-seekers also decreased by 54,000 to 3,5-million in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter. The number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 264,000 between the two quarters, resulting in a net increase of 210,000 in the not economically active population

During the period under review, there were 123,000 jobs created in manufacturing, 82,000 in trade, while construction created 46,000 and transport 33,000 jobs.

The largest losses were recorded across finance with 80,000 jobs lost, 36,000 in private households, mining and agriculture recorded 1,000 losses each.

Done by Lizeka Tsotetsi