Africa-Press – South-Africa. The official unemployment rate increased by 0.2 of a percentage point to 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023, from the fourth quarter of last year, Statistics SA reported on Tuesday.
However, this was due to a large number of people who classified themselves as “not economically active” in the fourth quarter, who instead categorised themselves as “unemployed” in the first quarter of 2023.
“It was observed that a large number of persons moved from the ‘not economically active’ category to ’employed’ and ‘unemployed’ statuses between the two quarters, which resulted in an increase of 0.2 of a percentage point in the unemployment rate to 32.9%,” Statistics SA said.
This largely resulted in the number of unemployed people increasing by 179 000 to 7.9 million, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) shows.
But the number of employed persons increased by 258 000 to 16.2 million in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
And the unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition – which includes people who were available for work but not looking for a job – decreased by 0.2 of a percentage point to 42.4%.
Both the formal and informal sectors recorded increases in employment of 209 000 and 107 000, respectively. Finance, community and social services, and agriculture created the most jobs. But there were fewer positions in private households as well as small decreases in trade, mining, construction and manufacturing.
Compared to a year ago, 1.3 million more people were employed. There was a net gain of 1 million jobs in the formal sector.
However, there was also an increase in the youth unemployment rate by 1.1 percentage points to 46.5% in the first quarter.
Youth unemployment remains critically high, says Lara Hodes, economist at Investec Bank
“Improving the quality of and access to education remains essential,” said Hodes.
There were about 10.2 million young people aged 15 to 24 years who were not in employment, education or training.
So far in 2023, South Africa suffered more load shedding than during the entire 2022. This – along with aggressive interest rate hikes and rocketing food prices – has weighed on the economy and inhibited job creation.
Following an economic contraction in the final quarter of 2022, South Africa may have entered a recession if that trend continued in the first quarter of the year.
But the country is expected to narrowly miss a recession, according to economists’ forecasts. Their median estimate is for growth of 0.2% in the first quarter, according to a Bloomberg poll.
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