South Africa’s unemployment rate declined slightly during the last quarter of 2016 – driven largely by the services, transport and manufacturing sectors.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released yesterday (Tuesday) by statistician general Pali Lehohla, the number of employed people in South Africa rose by 235 000 to reach 16.1 million people being employed in the fourth quarter of 2016. There are currently 36.9 million people of working age in South Africa.
The services sector employed 73 000 additional people during that period, followed by transport with 46 000 new jobs, and 44 000 new positions in the manufacturing sector.
Lehohla warned that the country’s high unemployment rate was likely to worsen in future. "With the labour market that is not trained in specific skills, the unemployment situation is going to worsen unless people have skills. We have a number who are already past the point of being trainable," he said.
