South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 32.5% in the last three months of 2020, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke has revealed.

The increase presents a 1.7 percentage point increase from the third quarter of 2020.

Despite the grim picture painted in the fourth quarter (Q4) Labour Force Survey, released on Tuesday, Stats SA said the Quarter 4 results 2020 show that the number of employed persons increased by 333 000 to 15 million.

During this period, the number of unemployed persons increased by 701 000 to 7.2 million compared to Quarter 3:2020, resulting in an increase of 1 million (up by 4.9%).

During the quarter, the number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 235 000 (8.7%), while the number of people not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 1.1 million (7.4%) between the two quarters, resulting in a net decrease of 890 000 in the not economically active population.

The QLFS said the movement was proportionately more towards the unemployed than for the employed, which resulted in a significant increase of 1.7 percentage points in the official unemployment rate to 32.5% – the highest since the start of the QLFS in 2008.

“The unemployment rate according to the expanded definition of unemployment decreased by 0.5 of a percentage point to 42.6% in Quarter 4: 2020 compared to Quarter 3: 2020,” reads the report.

Despite this, employment increased in all sectors in the quarter.

“Formal sector employment increased by 189 000 (1.8%); informal sector employment by 65 000 (2.6%); private households by 76 000 (6.8%), and employment in agriculture increased by 2 000 (0.3%). Employment increased in all industries, except finance and mining. The industries which gained the most jobs were community and social services (170 000) and construction (86 000),” said Maluleke.