Unemployment rises by 97 000 in the third quarter
· Citizen
South Africa’s unemployment crisis deepened in the third quarter of 2026, with the number of unemployed people increasing by 97 000 to 8.6 million, despite 101 000 more people finding employment during the same period.
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According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released on Tuesday by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), unemployment in the third quarter was 33.7%, up from 33.6% in the second quarter.
Although the number of unemployed people increased by 97 000 between the second and third quarters of 2026, this does not necessarily mean that exactly 97 000 people who previously had jobs lost them.
The increase includes people who lost their jobs, people who were previously not looking for work but started looking and could not find employment, and new entrants into the labour market who could not find jobs.
Unemployment in SA
Stats SA said the number of employed persons increased by 101 000 to 16.8 million during the period, and the number of unemployed persons also increased by 97 000.
The combined increase of 198 000 people in employment and unemployment means more people were part of the labour force, either because they found jobs or because they were actively looking for work but could not find employment. This pushed the labour force up by 0.8% during the quarter.
“The above changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate (Labour Underutilisation (LU1)) increasing by 0.1 of a percentage point from 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026 to 33.7% in the third quarter of 2026,” said Stats SA.
Discouraged job-seekers increase
According to the QLFS, discouraged job-seekers increased by 70 000 to 3.7 million, other available job-seekers decreased by 1 000 to 860 000, and unavailable job-seekers remained the same at 44 000, resulting in a net increase of 69 000 to 4.6 million in the potential labour force.
The increase in discouraged job-seekers refers to people who want to work but have stopped actively looking because they believe no jobs are available. Other available job-seekers are willing and available to work but have not actively searched for employment, while unavailable job-seekers are not currently available to take up work.
Stats SA added that those outside the labour force for other reasons decreased by 150 000 to 12.4 million. Persons outside the labour force, the total of those in the potential labour force and those outside the labour force, decreased by 82 000 to 17.0 million during the period.
Time-related underemployment
According to Stats SA, the combined rate of unemployment (LU1) and time-related underemployment (LU2) fell by 0.1 percentage point to 36.5%, while the combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force (LU3) rose by 0.2 percentage point to 44.0%.
The composite measure of labour underutilisation (LU4) (which combines time-related underemployment, unemployment and potential labour force as a proportion of extended labour force) remained unchanged at 46.3% in the third quarter of 2026.
In simple terms, these figures show that the unemployment rate alone does not capture the full extent of South Africa’s jobs crisis.
People employed in formal and informal sector
The QLFS revealed that persons employed in the formal sector increased by 268 000 to 12.3 million during the period.
The informal sector and household sector both decreased by 98 000 and 68 000, respectively over the same period.
Increases in industry employment were mainly recorded in Finance (111 000), Manufacturing (33 000) and Mining (31 000).
The largest decreases in employment were recorded in Private households (68 000), Agriculture (34 000) and Construction (8 000).
Employment per province
According to Stats SA, the Western Cape saw the largest increase in employment, by 48 000, followed by the North West (45 000), the Eastern Cape (36 000) and Gauteng (25 000).
Decreases in employment were recorded in Free State (34 000) and Mpumalanga (30 000).
“Results for the third quarter of 2026 show that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 23 000 to 5.0 million compared with the second quarter of 2026, while employed youth recorded a decrease of 5 000 to 5.5 million.
“As a result, the youth unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 of a percentage point to 47.3% in the third quarter of 2026,” said Stats SA.