Africa: South African unemployment rises to 17-year high of of 30.8%

South Africa’s unemployment rate reached a 17-year high, as it recently rose from 23.3% to 30.8%

By William Ukpe

South Africa’s unemployment rate has risen to 30.8% from 23.3%, rising to a 17-year high as Africa’s second-largest economy reopens for business after COVID-19 lockdowns and took more data on lost jobs during the period.

This was disclosed in a Bloomberg report on Thursday.

What you should know  

South Africa is doing a bit worse on the unemployment scale than its African economic rival, Nigeria. Nairametrics reported in August that the unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 is 27.1%, indicating that about  21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed.

Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment rate (28.6%) is a combined 55.7%. This means the total number of Nigerians who are unemployed or underemployed as at 2020 Q2.

South African analysts reported that unemployment according to the definition of people who need work and are available for jobs rose to 43.1%

This means that South African unemployment has averaged a rate of 20% for the past 20 years.

It also signifies that the number of employed for the quarter climbed by 543,00, raising the official number to 14.691 million while the unemployed figure reached 6.533 million people.

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa announced last month, a post-COVID-19 reconstruction plan valued at $6.4 billion with jobs at the centre of attention, with 800,000 jobs expected to be created in the coming  months