The Free State’s official unemployment rate for the first quarter of this year has dropped by 5.6 percentage points from 36.7 percent to 31.1 percent.
This is the second consecutive decrease since September last year when the province recorded a 38.1 percent unemployment rate.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey Report released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday also says Free State employment increased by 54 000 from 727 000 in the last quarter of 2021 to 781 000.
The expanded unemployment rate for the province however remains high at 40.5 after it fell by 3.7 percentage points to 44.2 percent.
The expanded unemployment rate includes people who have given up looking for work and are not studying or undertaking any form of training either.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said in the report the Free State was among the provinces that recorded the highest drops.
“The largest decreases were recorded in Free State . . . followed by North West (down by 3.7 percentage points), Western Cape (down by 2.8 percentage points) and Mpumalanga (down by 1.1 percentage points),” he said.
Maluleke said Limpopo however recorded the largest increase of 1.7 percentage points, followed by KwaZulu-Natal (up by 0.8 of a percentage point) and Gauteng (up by 0.1 of a percentage point).
Nationally, the official unemployment rate fell by 0.8 of a percentage point from 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 34.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022.
Using the expanded definition of unemployment, the rate also decreased by 0.7 of a percentage point to 45.5 percent over the same period.
The Nedbank Economic Unit said in a statement the annual numbers showed that the economy has not yet recovered enough to support a significant increase in employment creation, as the unemployment rate remains high.
It said nationally, the performance of different industries was mixed.
The highest number of jobs was created in community and social services, 281 000, and manufacturing, 263 000.
Employment also increased in domestic trade and mining.
Employment in the domestic trade sector was mainly lifted by firmer activity in the hotel and tourism industries.
Private households lost the highest number of jobs, 186 000, over the quarter.
Agriculture, construction and finance also reduced workers.
“The outlook for the job market remains uncertain. The economy had started the year positively, with corporate profitability recovering,” said Nedbank.
“However, the recovery is now threatened by concerns about global stagflation – the dilemma of high interest rates, slow economic growth, and high unemployment.
“Conditions in the sectors that supply the export market are likely to remain subdued as global demand will be restrained by the slowdown in China’s economic growth, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, and tighter monetary policy,” said Nedbank. – Staff Reporter