South Africa’s unemployment rate rises to 33.7% in third quarter

Economy

Tuesday 10th November 2026

A vendor carrying goods at a taxi rank in Johannesburg, South Africa — A vendor at a Johannesburg taxi rank on 13 February 2026. File photo by LondekaT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized.

By inAfrika Newsroom

South Africa’s official unemployment rate edged up to 33.7% in the third quarter of 2026 from 33.6% in the previous three months. Employment rose, but the number of people in work or seeking it expanded more quickly.

The Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released by Statistics South Africa on 10 November, put employment at 16.8 million, up 101,000 from the second quarter. The number of unemployed people increased by 97,000 to 8.6 million.

The labour force grew by 198,000, or 0.8%. The official rate measures unemployment as a share of that labour force. A broader measure that includes the potential labour force rose by 0.2 percentage points to 44.0%.

The government news service, citing the survey, reported that formal employment increased by 268,000. Informal employment fell by 98,000 and employment in private households declined by 68,000.

Finance recorded the largest industry gain, with 111,000 more employed people. Manufacturing added 33,000 and mining added 31,000. Agriculture lost 34,000 jobs and construction lost 8,000.

Among people aged 15 to 34, the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 47.3%. Statistics South Africa estimated that 5.0 million people in that age group were unemployed during the quarter.

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