About 204 000 jobs were created between the second and third quarters of 2022, Statistics SA said on Tuesday, meaning 7.7-million people are officially unemployed compared with 7.9-million people in the previous three months.
The unemployment rate dropped to 32.9% in the third quarter from 33.9% in the second quarter.
According to an expanded definition of unemployment that includes the people who are discouraged from seeking work, 43.1% were without work in the third quarter from 44.1% in the second quarter.
“The third quarter of 2022 results continue to show that the youth [aged 15-34 years] remain vulnerable in the labour market with an unemployment rate of 45.5%,” the statistics agency said.
“The total number of unemployed youth decreased by 182 000 to 4.6-million in the third quarter. There was an increase of 25 000 in the number of employed youth during the same period.”
In 2021, the country recorded an unemployment rate of 35.3% in the fourth quarter, which was the highest since the Quarterly Labour Force Survey was launched in 2008.
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