Unemployment rate climbs - almost 10% more young people without jobs than 10 years ago

The Money Show's Stephen Grootes interviews Sharmi Surianarain from Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.

South Africa's official unemployment rate edged up to 32,9% in the first quarter of 2025.

That's an increase of 1 percentage point from 31,9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The number of employed persons decreased by 291,000 to 16,8 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  drop of 237 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8,2 million.

In terms of the expanded definition, the unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2025 grew by 1,2 percentage points to 43,1% when compared with the fourth quarter of 2024.

The unemployment figure for young people (15-34) is particularly disturbing - the figure for Q1:2025 is 46.1%.

Seen in context, that's a 9,2 percentage point increase from 2015, when the official unemployment rate for youth was 36,9%.

According to the latest numbers, around 1,9 million people aged 15-34 were classified as discouraged work-seekers compared to 1,5 million adults aged 35–64. 

Stephen Grootes gets comment from Sharmi Surianarain, chief impact officer for Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator in South Africa and Rwanda.

These bleak numbers show how young people continue to be left out of the economy, remarks Surianarain.

"This is true over the good times as it's true when the GDP growth is low as it has been this past year, and probably forecasted downwards."

Sharmi Surianarain, Chief Impact Officer - Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

"Unfortunately we are paying the price for decades of exclusion and jobless growth and a decline of manufacturing and a whole host of sectors that SA did have a competitive advantage in."

Sharmi Surianarain, Chief Impact Officer - Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article