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[FILE IMAGE]: Youth protest over lack of employment options.
The latest labour force numbers from StatsSA show that while the number of jobs grew by 19 000 for the second quarter of 2025, the number of unemployed people increased by 140 000, raising the unemployment rate by 0.3 of a percentage point to 33.2%.
South Africa now possesses 8.4 million unemployed people, contrasted with 16.8 million employed and 3.4 million discouraged job seekers. Compared to Q1 2025, discouraged job seekers decreased by 28 000.
INFOGRAPHIC
By Sibusiso Biyela
According to the QLFS Q2: 2025 results, there was an increase of 19 000 in the number of employed persons to 16,8 million, while there was an increase of 140 000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8,4 million. This resulted in an increase of 159 000 (up by 0,6%) in the labour force during the same period.
Discouraged work-seekers decreased by 28 000 (down by 0,8%), and the number of persons who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement remained unchanged between the first quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2025. This led to a decrease of 28 000 in the number of the not economically active population to 16,6 million.
