South Africa's official unemployment rate fell for the first time in a year in the third quarter, data showed on Tuesday, 12 November.

The unemployment rate fell to 32.1% from 33.5% in the second quarter, Statistics South Africa said.

The last time the official rate fell was the third quarter of 2023.

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, but the official rate eased in the latest three-month period thanks to growing employment in six of the 10 industries tracked by the statistics agency.

The highest number of job gains were in the Community and Social Services (194,000), Construction (176,000) and Trade (109,000). Decreases in employment were recorded in Finance (189,000), Private households (32,000), Manufacturing (20,000) and Transport (18,000).

The results also indicate that the largest increases in employment were observed in Eastern Cape (83,000), Western Cape (75,000), North West (69,000) and Mpumalanga (49,000), while decreases were only observed in Gauteng (66,000) and KwaZulu-Natal (2,000).

Under an expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those discouraged from seeking work, 41.9% were jobless in the third quarter compared with 42.6% in second quarter.

The youth (15-34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market. The third quarter of 2024 results show that the total number of unemployed youth decreased by 171,000 to 4,8 million, while employed youth recorded an increase of 66,000 to 5,8 million. As a result, youth unemployment rate decreased from 46.6% in the second quarter of 2024 to 45.5% in the third quarter of 2024.

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