South Africa unemployment rises to 33.6% in Q2 2026

South Africa's official unemployment rate rose to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, marking a significant increase from 32.7% in the first quarter, according to data released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey showed the number of unemployed people grew by 345,000 to 8.5 million, while employment declined by 16,000 to 16.7 million between the two quarters.

The rise in joblessness occurred despite a decrease in the number of discouraged jobseekers, which fell by 227,000 to 3.7 million. Other available jobseekers also declined by 49,000 to 861,000, and unavailable jobseekers decreased by 4,000 to 44,000. These changes resulted in a net decrease of 280,000 in the potential labour force, bringing that figure down to 4.6 million.

Broader measures of labour underutilisation also reflected continued pressure. The combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment increased by 0.7 percentage points to 36.6%, while the combined rate of unemployment and the potential labour force rose by 0.1 percentage points to 43.8%. The composite measure of labour underutilisation remained unchanged at 46.3%.

Employment gains were recorded in several...