Official unemployment rate dips for 2nd consecutive quarter (slightly)
The latest Stats SA figures show that the official unemployment rate was 31,9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
FILE: Unemployed builders, tilers and plumbers hold signs seeking jobs on the side of the road in Johannesburg. Picture: AFP
Stephen Grootes interviews Ravi Naidoo, CEO of the Youth Employment Service.
South Africa's official unemployment rate dropped slightly in the fourth quarter of 2024, to
31,9 %.
That's a decrease of 0.2 of a percentage point from 32,1% in the third quarter of the year.
RELATED: SA's official unemployment rate dips below 33%
The number of employed persons grew by 132 000 to 17,1 million, according to Statistics SA's latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, or QLFS. (Click here for the key findings)
At the same time there was a decrease of 20 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8 million
In terms of the expanded definition, the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2024 remained at 41,9% when compared with the third quarter.
Unemployment stats, Q4 2024 (Statistics SA)
Stephen Grootes gets comment from Ravi Naidoo, CEO of the Youth Employment Service (YES).
Naidoo highlights that this the second consecutive quarter where South Africa has seen positive jobs growth.
If you take the months since the May elections - say, June-December 2024, that would be 428 000 new jobs in those six months, he remarks.
"It doesn't deal with the 12 million backlog of people who're officially unemployed as well as those who're discouraged, but it was an important positive momentum that clearly we need to keep taking forward and chip away at the very large number of unemployed."
Ravi Naidoo, CEO - Youth Employment Service
"But we certainly see a number of positive signs and it's just a question of whether South Africa can keep on that path."
Ravi Naidoo, CEO - Youth Employment Service
For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article