Positive figures as unemployment rate drops by almost 1% in SA

JOHANNESBURG - The latest employment and unemployment data for the third quarter of 2023 has been released by Statistics South Africa in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey.

The country's unemployed population for third quarter now stands at 31,9%, a decrease of 0,7% compared to the second quarter.

READ: Unemployment decreases by 0.3% in second quarter of 2023

In simple numbers, over 399 000 more people have been employed, taking the number of employed people to 16.7 million. This is higher than the 16.4 million employed people recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic wave that left hundreds of thousands jobless.  

The highlight of the latest stats is the rise of the number of young people who have been able to find jobs. Stats SA says the youth remains vulnerable in the labour market but results show that 237 000 more young people were employed taking the number of employed youth to 6 million in the third quarter. 

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