South Africa’s workforce contracted in the first quarter of 2025, as unemployment continued to climb, heightening economic concerns.
According to Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), the number of unemployed persons rose to 8.2 million, a 237,000 increase from 2024’s final quarter. This translates to a 32.9% unemployment rate–1% higher than last year’s Q4.
Of South Africa’s nine provinces, six contributed to the rise in unemployment.
KwaZulu-Natal endured the biggest hit as employment numbers declined by 104,000, followed by Eastern Cape (83,000), Northwest (57,000), Limpopo (55,000), Mpumalanga (43,000) and Northern Cape (12,000).
Western Cape, the only province governed by the Democratic Alliance, saw a 49,000 uptick in workers, a staggering 40,000 better than next-best Gauteng (9,000), while the Free State saw its number of workers rise by 4,000.
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Regarding industries, trade took the biggest knock, with its workforce depleting by 194,000. Construction (119,000), Private Households (68,000), and Community and Social Services (45,000) also experienced dwindling figures. The biggest winners include transport (67,000), finance (60,000) and utilities (35,000).
South Africa’s youth, aged between 15 and 34, remain at risk as the demographic’s unemployment rate rose to 4.8 million, 151,000 more than the previous quarter.
Simultaneously, the number of employed youth slumped by 153,000 to 5.7 million (46.1%).
Together, these developments have pushed South Africa’s expanded unemployment rate — which includes both active job seekers and discouraged work-seekers—up by 1.2 percentage points to 43.1%.
“The increase in discouraged work-seekers is a worry because we would want to see people being active in the labor market by either looking for employment or participating,” Chief Director of Labour Statistics at Statistics South Africa Desiree Manamela said at a press conference.
The growing unemployment rates will undoubtedly instil further public scrutiny on South Africa’s newly-formed general coalition government, which has yet to show substantial signs of economic growth as it continues to get distracted by in-house disputes.
More business-friendly policies are needed to counteract the nation’s poor domestic demand. The infrastructure, business, and workers are there, but effective frameworks to harness all three cohesively remain elusive.
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