South African jobless rate rises, highlighting coalition challenge

The official unemployment rate stood at 33.2% in April-June, up from 32.9% in January-March, one of the highest rates worldwide.

The coalition government formed after the African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority in the 2024 election has struggled to achieve a meaningful drop in the jobless rate, despite making that a priority.

Statistics South Africa said the number of unemployed people increased to 8.367 million in the second quarter, though there was a slight drop in an expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those discouraged from seeking work.

Six of the 10 industries tracked by the statistics agency recorded employment decreases, while four had increases in the latest three-month period.

The most jobs were lost in community and social services, agriculture and finance.

Top statistics official Risenga Maluleke said it was too early to tell whether U.S. tariffs were having an effect on the jobs data.

South African exports to the U.S. were hit with a 30% tariff last week, the highest rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

Maluleke dismissed criticism by the former head of major local bank Capitec that the statistics agency was underestimating the number of people with informal jobs.

He told a press conference his agency had always measured that and made its numbers available, adding that South Africa would be making "a big mistake as a country if we want to assume that we do not have an unemployment challenge".

Desiree Manamela, chief director of labour statistics, said updates to the way Statistics SA collects unemployment data that will be rolled out in the next quarter were unlikely to significantly affect the official jobless rate.

But they should allow the agency to include additional measures of the health of the economy in its reports, she said.