Official unemployment rate rises to 33.6% in the second quarter

Polity Audio Articles · Aug 11, 2026 · 2m

Official unemployment rate rises to 33.6% in the second quarter Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has confirmed that South Africa's official unemployment rate increased by 0.9 of a percentage point to 33.6% for the second quarter, compared with 32.7% in the first quarter of this year. Stats SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey shows that the number of unemployed persons increased by 345 000 quarter-on-quarter to 8.5-million, while the number of employed persons decreased by 16 000 quarter-on-quarter to 16.7-million. This resulted in an increase of 329 000 in the labour force during the same…