By Zuko Komisa

- Official unemployment climbed 0.9 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 33.6% in Q2 2026, marking its highest level since August 2022.
- Overall employment contracted by 16,000 jobs driven by contractions in community services, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing bringing total unemployed to 8.5 million out of a 25.2 million labour force.
- A total of 17.1 million working-age people remain inactive, whilst demographic inequalities persist, with Black Africans recording a 37.6% unemployment rate despite lower regional figures in the Western Cape.
South Africa’s official unemployment rate rose by 0.9 percentage points to reach 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, up from 32.7% recorded in the first quarter.
The uptick pushes joblessness to its highest level since August 2022. Total jobseekers in the country reached 8.5 million within an overall active labour force of 25.2 million.
Total employment contracted by 16,000 positions over the period. Key economic sectors sustained the heaviest losses, including community services, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Meanwhile, 17.1 million working-age individuals remained entirely outside the national workforce.
According to Statistics South Africa, the metrics highlight broad labour market challenges:
“These labour underutilisation measures highlight people in different situations with different degrees of attachment to the labour market.”
Significant demographic and regional disparities continue to characterize the local labour market.
Black Africans experienced an unemployment rate of 37.6%, whereas geographical variances remain pronounced, evidenced by comparatively lower joblessness in provinces such as the Western Cape.
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