Cape Town — Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) Quarterly Labour Force Survey for Q4 2022 shows that unemployment fell to 7.753 million people, a decline of 0.5 percentage points to 42.6 % compared with Q3 2022. At the same time, employment rose slightly, increasing from 9.920 million in September 2022 to 9.968 million in December 2022. The biggest contributors to job creation during the quarter were trade, business services and mining.
Labour‑law expert Andrew Levy told SABC News that, despite the recent improvement, the long‑term trend remains bleak. “If we look at the trend since 2010 or 2012—ignoring the small year‑to‑year fluctuations—the trend is down. Over the last decade we have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, unemployment has grown very significantly, and it is a national disaster at the moment,” he said.
Stats SA highlighted a noticeable rise in new jobs in the second half of 2022, stating that 169 000 jobs were added between Q3 and Q4 2022. The total number of employed persons reached 15.9 million in Q4 2022, while the unemployed increased by 28 000 to 7.8 million. The number of people not economically active for reasons other than discouragement grew by 95 000 to 13.4 million, whereas discouraged work‑seekers fell by 151 000, resulting in a net decrease of 57 000 in the not‑economically‑active population.
Additional data reveal that approximately 3.4 million (33.6 %) of the 10.2 million young people aged 15‑24 were not in employment, education or training (NEET). The graduate unemployment rate stands at 10.6 %, which is 22.1 percentage points lower than the national unemployment rate. Unemployment among the Black African population remains higher than the national average, at 36.8 % compared with other population groups.
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