Stats SA chief reaffirms unemployment crisis despite modest jobs recovery

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke says any suggestion that South Africa isn’t facing a serious unemployment crisis is a misrepresentation of the reality of widespread joblessness in the country.

His remarks follow recent comments by Minerals and Petroleum Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe. Last month, Mantashe said, “Some sit in the sun and expect the state to deliver,” before later clarifying that his comments had been misunderstood.

READ: SA’s official unemployment rate drops to 31.4%

Earlier on Tuesday, Maluleke released the latest fourth-quarter 2025 Labour Force numbers, which show a steady decline in the official unemployment rate down to 31.4%. However, despite this modest recovery, young people remain particularly vulnerable in the labour market.

Maluleke pointed to scenes of long queues of young job seekers responding to recruitment drives by the South African National Defence Force as evidence that unemployment—especially among the youth—remains a pressing national challenge.

"When I hear people out there saying we don’t have a challenge of unemployment, those young people who keep streaming at the stadium in Thohoyandou are just but an iceberg of young people we have always reported about at Stats SA, and to water down such developments makes us fail to appreciate the challenge of unemployment in our country," Maluleke said.