Unemployment increases to 7.9-million in the first quarter — five things you need to know

The unemployment rate among the black population remains higher than the national average and other population groups, Stats SA revealed. 

The latest Stats SA data released on Tuesday showed the number of unemployed people increased by 0.2% or 179,000 to 7.9-million during the first quarter of 2023.

The number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 209,000 to 13.2-million. 

Discouraged workseekers decreased by 87,000 in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of “not economically active” looking for jobs decreased by 296,000 in the first quarter. 

Time-related underemployment

While the unemployment rate may be high, Stats SA said there was also an increase in time-related underemployment. 

Time-related underemployment refers to people in employment who wanted to work additional hours, worked less than a specified hours threshold (working time in all jobs) and were available to work additional hours given an opportunity for more work. 

Stats South Africa defines time-related underemployment as people who worked less than 35 hours in the reference week and were available to work additional hours.

“In the first quarter of 2023, 4.9% of employed people were in time-related underemployment. This is consistent with underemployment recorded in the first quarter of 2020 pre-Covid-19 with a slight increase of 0.2 of a percentage point over these years. The prevalence of underemployment increased during Covid-19, from 4.7% in the first quarter of 2020 to 5.2% in the first quarter of 2021, followed by a significant increase in the proportion of people affected by time-related underemployment in the first quarter of 2022 at 5.6%.”

Formal and informal sectors

The formal and informal sectors recorded increases in employment of 209,000 and 107,000, respectively. 

The finance (184,000), community and social services (175,000) and agriculture (27,000) sectors had the largest employment gains. 

Compared to the same period last year, an increase of 1.3-million in total employment in the first quarter of 2022 was largely due to increases in the number of people employed in community and social services (357,000), finance (335,000), trade (275 000) and construction (128 000).

Employment losses were recorded in private households (85,000), trade (28,000), mining (24,000), construction (11,000) and manufacturing (2,000). 

Province with the highest employment rate

Gauteng (80,000), Limpopo (up by 71,000), the Western Cape (62,000), KwaZulu-Natal (54,000) and the Eastern Cape (41,000) recorded the largest employment increases in the first quarter. 

Employment losses were recorded in Mpumalanga (45,000), the North West and Free State (4,000 each) during the same period.

The most vulnerable races

The unemployment rate among the black population (37.2%) remains higher than the national average and other population groups.

Black women continue to be most vulnerable with an unemployment rate of 39.9% in the first quarter of 2023. This is 4.5 percentage points higher than the national average for women at 35.4%.

Youth unemployment

The youth remain vulnerable in the labour market, with the first quarter of 2023 results showing the number of unemployed youth between 15-34 years increased by 241,000 to 4.9-million. 

There was an increase of 28,000 in the number of employed youth to 5.6-million during the same period. This resulted in an increase in the youth unemployment rate by 1.1 percentage points to 46.5%. 

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