SA unemployment rate falls slightly to 31.9% in fourth quarter

JOHANNESBURG - The country’s unemployment rate has dropped by a marginal 0.2 of a percentage in the fourth and final quarter of last year.

This means the official unemployment rate now stands at 31.9%.

Stats SA released the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Despite the slight reprieve in joblessness, at least 8 million South Africans remain outside of the job market.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said that employment increased in all sectors except agriculture.

"We can see, in terms of gains in employment where we are saying of the third quarter we have gained 132,000 jobs."