South Africa: Unemployment hits record 32.6% of population

Unemployment reached the level of 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021 against 32.5% in the previous quarter. This was announced by the South African Statistics Agency (StatsSA) in a report released on June 1.

According to the institution, the number of people with a job was 15 million with “a slight decrease of 28,000 in the first quarter of 2021”, while the number of unemployed is estimated at 7.2 million, reflecting an increase of 8,000, compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

This rise in the unemployment rate, which according to the StatsSA is a record since 2008, is explained by the loss of many jobs in several sectors of the economy.

Indeed, the economic difficulties that the Rainbow Nation is going through, reinforced by the covid-19 pandemic, have negatively impacted the country’s employment policy.

In the area of ​​employment, the restrictions have led to situations of wage cuts or job cuts, when some businesses have been forced to close because of low activity.

In addition, the slowness in the implementation of vaccination campaigns contributed to the slowing of the economic recovery. Thus, the sectors most affected are construction, with a loss of 87,000 jobs, trade with 84,000 jobs lost, domestic services with 70,000 jobs lost and transport with a loss of 40,000 jobs.

These losses were more or less balanced because of a sharp increase in jobs in sectors such as finance (215,000 jobs), public services (16,000), community and social services (16,000), and mining (12,000 jobs).