Unemployment increased to 33.2% in Q2 of 2025 - Stats SA

JOHANNESBURG - The country’s unemployment rate has again ticked up, increasing by 0.3 of a percentage point in the second quarter of the year.

This puts the jobless rate at 33.2% from the first quarter’s 32.9%.

Stats SA released the Quarterly Labour Force Survey on Tuesday.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke: "According to the QLFS Q2: 2025 results, there was an increase of 19,000 in the number of employed persons to 16.8 million, while there was an increase of 140,000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.4 million. This resulted in an increase of 159,000 (up by 0.6%) in the labour force during the same period."

It’s the first jobs print released since then-Capitect CEO Gerrie Fourie criticised the stats body’s data, claiming that the unemployment rate was overstated.

Maluleke has again defended the credibility of the data.