South Africa’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in the third quarter of this year, but millions of people, particularly young aspirant workers, remain without a job.
StatsSA reported that the official unemployment rate was down to 32.1%, an improvement of 1.4 percentage points on the second quarter. The expanded rate, which includes those who have given up looking for jobs, improved to 41.9% from 42.6%.
The slightly better numbers are welcome, but not a cause for celebration. More than 12 million people have no work, and millions of families have no income and no food provider.
Worse, unemployment is highest in the younger age groups, and the numbers increased in the third quarter. Unemployment in the 15-24 age group is put at 60.2%, while in the 25-34 age group it is 40.4%.
Black Africans are the hardest hit population group, with unemployment at 36.1% – more than a third of black Africans of working age are without a job.
“Black African unemployment rate has consistently been higher than the national average and other population groups over the past 10-year period,” StatsSA said.
