The official unemployment rate has, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA)'s quarterly labour force survey released on Tuesday, 10 November, risen in the third quarter of 2026 by 0.1 percentage point from 33.6% to 33.7%. Against the previous quarter, the number of employed people increased by 101 000 to 16.8 million, while the number of unemployed people rose by 97 000 to 8.6 million. The labour force thus grew by 198 000 people.
Stats SA said the formal sector employed 268 000 more people, while employment in the informal sector fell by 98 000. The biggest increases were in finance (111 000), manufacturing (33 000) and mining (31 000).
The Western Cape recorded the largest provincial increase, with 48 000 more people employed, followed by the North West with 45 000. Employment fell in the Free State by 34 000 and in Mpumalanga by 30 000.
The unemployment rate among 15- to 34-year-olds fell from 47.4% to 47.3%. The broader measure that counts unemployment and the potential labour force together rose by 0.2 percentage point to 44.0%.
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This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
