South Africa’s unemployment rate climbed to 33.2% in the second quarter of 2025.
That’s a 0.3 percentage point rise from the 32.9% recorded in the first quarter, according to Statistics South Africa.
Earlier this year, the rate had already increased from a one-year low of 31.9%.
In the latest quarter, 291,000 jobs were lost, leaving 16.787 million people employed.
The labour force also shrank by 54,000, now standing at 25.015 million.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke told reporters the number of unemployed rose by 140,000 to 8.4 million.
A small gain of 19,000 jobs was recorded.
