South Africa’s official unemployment rate has increased by 0.9 percentage point from 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026 to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026.
This is according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday.
“There was an increase of 345 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.5 million, while there was a decrease of 16 000 in the number of employed persons to 16.7 million compared with the first quarter of 2026. This resulted in an increase of 329 000 (or 1.3%) in the labour force during the same period.
“The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate (Labour Underutilisation (LU1)) increasing by 0.9 percentage point from 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026 to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026,” Stats SA said.
The increases in industry employment were mainly recorded in Trade (70 000), Construction (39 000) and Finance (11 000). The largest decreases in employment were recorded in Community and social service (57 000), Mining (26 000), Agriculture and Manufacturing (15 000 each).
The number of persons employed in the formal sector and household sector decreased by 41 000 and 9 000, respectively, in the second quarter of 2026, and in the informal sector increased by 34 000 over the same period.
Mpumalanga (41 000), Eastern Cape (13 000) and Free State (9 000) were provinces that observed the highest increases in employment. Decreases in employment were recorded in Western Cape (48 000), Gauteng (22 000) and North West (15 000).
Discouraged job-seekers decreased by 227 000 to 3.7 million, other available job-seekers decreased by 49 000 to 861 000, and unavailable job-seekers decreased by 4 000 to 44 000, resulting in a net decrease of 280 000 to 4.6 million in the potential labour force (i.e. available persons but not seeking or unavailable but seeking).
Those outside the labour force for other reasons increased by 72 000 to 12.5 million.
Persons outside the labour force, which is the total of those in the potential labour force and others outside the labour force, decreased by 208 000 to 17.1 million in the second quarter of 2026.
“The results for the second quarter of 2026 show that the total number of unemployed youth (15-34 years) increased by 264 000 to 5,0 million compared with quarter one of 2026, while employed youth recorded a decrease of 40 000 to 5,6 million. As a result, the youth unemployment rate increased by 1.5 percentage points to 47.4% in the second quarter of 2026,” Stats SA said. -SAnews.gov.za
