Image Source: Stats SA
Local – According to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter of 2025, unemployment decreased, with the official unemployment rate falling by 0,5 percentage points from 31,9% in the third quarter to 31,4%.
The results pointed to a cautious stabilisation in the labour market, with employment edging upward even as the broader workforce contracted slightly over the period.
The survey recorded measurable shifts across both employment and unemployment figures, reflecting movement in how South Africans are engaging with the labour market.
“There was an increase of 44,000 in the number of employed persons to 17,1 million, while there was a decrease of 172,000 in the number of unemployed persons to 7,8 million compared with Q3 2025 results.”
Broader measures of labour underutilisation revealed the extent to which many South Africans remain on the periphery of the economy.
These expanded measures account for discouraged workers, part-time workers seeking more hours, and those available but not actively searching, groups that the official rate alone does not capture.
“The composite measure of labour underutilisation (LU4) was 44,5% in the fourth quarter of 2025.”
Formal Sector Leads, Informality Retreats
Sector-level data showed a sharp divergence between formal and informal employment, with gains in structured work failing to offset losses at the margins of the economy.
Formal sector employment increased by 320,000 while informal sector employment decreased by 293,000, with growth concentrated in Community and social services, Construction and Finance.
Trade shed the most positions at 98,000, followed by Manufacturing at 61,000 and Mining at 5,000, sectors that signal continued pressure on goods-producing and consumer-facing industries.
Provincial trends were uneven, with the Western Cape recording the strongest growth at 93,000 jobs, followed by Mpumalanga and North West with gains of 37,000 and 36,000, respectively.
“The largest employment decreases were recorded in Gauteng (54,000), KwaZulu-Natal (41,000) and Eastern Cape (32,000) during the same period.”
Youth Unemployment Edges Higher
South Africa’s youth continued to carry a disproportionate share of the labour market burden in the fourth quarter.
Even as the total number of unemployed youth declined by 84,000 to 4,6 million, employed youth also fell by 113,000 to 5,8 million over the same period.
“The youth (15–34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market,” the survey confirmed, with the youth unemployment rate rising by 0,1 of a percentage point to 43,8% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
