Stats South Africa reveals South Africa’s unemployment rate climbs to 30.1 percent

Stats South Africa has published its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the three months to March 2020, revealing that the country's unemployment rate rose in the first quarter of the year.

The number of unemployed people in South Africa increased from 4,6 million in Q1:2010 to 7,1 million in Q1:2020. The proportion of those in long-term #unemployment increased from 64,0% in Q1:2010 to 71,7% in Q1:2020.Read more here: https://t.co/rsyaaGNHrt#StatsSA pic.twitter.com/1ORnKzajI1

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) June 23, 2020

According to Stats SA, the official unemployment rate has increased by 1.0 percentage point to 30.1 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.

The number of employed persons decreased by 38,000 to 16.4 million and the number of unemployed persons increased by 344,000 to 7.1 million in Q1: 2020 compared to Q4: 2019, resulting in an increase of 306,000 in the labor force.

The largest employment decreases were observed in the formal sector (50,000), followed by the agricultural sector with 21,000 in Q1: 2020.

On the other hand, employment in the informal sector and private households increased by 3,000 and 30,000 respectively.

Over the last few weeks, the effects of the lockdown have already been felt, with big companies like Sasol, Edcon, SAA, Comair, and Bidvest Group subsidiary, BidAir all reportedly announcing retrenchments.