Staff Reporter
The official unemployment rate in the Free State grew by 1.6 percentage points to 38.1 percent between July and September this year.
Latest figures released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) also indicate that the expanded unemployment rate, which includes people who have given up looking for jobs, now stands at 45.8 percent – an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter.
This means of the province’s nearly 1.2 million labour force, only 720 000 people were employed in the third quarter, compared to 723 000 in the previous quarter.
Those officially unemployed in the province are 443 000 while the figure for discouraged work seekers stands at 128 000.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said in the report all industries, nationally, experienced job losses between the second and third quarters of 2021 except the finance industry which gained 138 000 jobs.
“The largest employment decrease (nationally) was observed in trade (which shed) 309 000 jobs followed by community and social services, 210 000,” said Maluleke.
These changes resulted in the country’s official unemployment rate increasing by 0.5 of a percentage point from 34.4 percent in the second quarter of 2021 to 34.9 percent in the third quarter.
This is the highest rate since the start of the QLFS in 2008.
South Africa’s unemployment rate, according to the expanded definition of unemployment, increased by 2.2 percentage points to 46.6 percent in third quarter compared to the previous one.
Also according to the survey, the unemployment rate among the black African population group remains higher than the national average and other population groups at 38.6 percent.
It said black African women are the most vulnerable group with an unemployment rate of 41.5 percent – this is 4.2 percentage points higher than the national average for females in the country.
Youth aged 15-24 years and 25-34 years recorded the highest unemployment rates of 66.5 percent and 43.8 percent respectively.
Also according to the report, approximately 3.4 million or 33.5 percent of 10.2 million young people aged 15-24 years were not in employment, education or training.