The number of employed people decreased by 237,000 to 16.3 million in the first quarter.
South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 27.6% of the labour force in the first quarter of 2019 from 27.1% in the final quarter of last year, the statistics agency said on Tuesday.
In its quarterly labour force survey, Statistics South Africa said the number of employed people decreased by 237,000 to 16.3 million in the first quarter, while that of jobless people increased by 62,000 to 6.2 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2018.
This resulted in a decrease of 176,000 or 0.8% in the number of people in the labour force while the absorption rate fell by 0.7 percentage points to 42.6%.
African News Agency
