JOHANNESBURG, October 30 – Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) said on Tuesday that the unemployment rate increased by 0.3 of a percentage point to 27.5 percent between July and September this year.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the third quarter of 2018 revealed that the number of employed persons increased by 92,000 to 16.4 million, while the number of unemployed persons rose by 127,000 to 6.2 million. The absorption rate remained unchanged at 43.1 percent.
During the third quarter of 2018, the informal sector recorded employment gains of 188,000, while the formal sector, private households and agriculture recorded declines in employment.
StatsSA said the number of discouraged work-seekers declined by 131,000 while the number of other not economically active persons increased by 65,000, resulting in a decrease of 66,000 in the number of people not in the labour force between the second and third quarters of 2018.
The number of employed persons declined in seven of the ten industries, but these declines were offset by employment gains in finance and other business services, trade and construction industries, which resulted in a net increase of 92,000 in the third quarter of 2018.
StatsSA said the largest employment increases were recorded in Limpopo at 41,000, Gauteng at 22,000 and Mpumalanga with 20,000 jobs in the period. Free State and Eastern Cape were the only provinces that recorded employment losses.
– African News Agency (ANA)
