After declining in the third and fourth quarters of 2025, South Africa’s unemployment rate reversed course in the first quarter of 2026.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released its Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) on Tuesday, revealing that the unemployment rate rose by 1.3 percentage points, from 31.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026.
Community and social services, construction and transport were among the industries that lost the most jobs during the period. Although not specified by Stats SA, it can be suggested that jobs were lost due to retrenchments and company shutdowns.
Many lost jobs in 2026
According to Stats SA, the number of employed people sat at 16.8 million after 345 000 people lost their jobs during the period.
At the same time, 301 000 more people became unemployed, pushing the unemployment total to 8.1 million.
“This resulted in a decrease of 44 000 in the labour force during the same period,” said the country’s official statistics agency.
Youth unemployment
According to Stats SA, results for the first quarter of 2026 show that the total number of unemployed youth (aged 15-34) increased by 181 000 to 4.7 million, compared with quarter four of 2025.
258 000 youth lost their jobs during the quarter, pushing the number of employed youth to 5.6 million.
“As a result, the youth unemployment rate increased by 2.0 percentage points to 45.8% in the first quarter of 2026,” said the agency. Simply put, almost half of the country’s youth seeking work cannot find jobs.
More people stop looking for jobs
Stats SA’s data revealed that more people became discouraged about finding work, leading to an increase in the number of people outside the active job market.
The agency said discouraged job-seekers increased by 178 000 to 3.9 million. These are people who want to work but have stopped looking because they believe there are no jobs available for them.
Other people who were available to work but not actively searching also increased by 55 000 to 910 000. Unavailable job-seekers increased by 6 000 to 49 000.
Altogether, the number of people considered part of the potential labour force increased by 240 000 to 4.9 million.
Those outside labour force
The country’s official statistics agency said the number of people outside the labour force for other reasons, such as studying, retirement, or family responsibilities, decreased slightly.
“Persons outside the labour force, which is the total of those in potential labour force and others outside the labour force, increased by 164 000 to 17.3 million in the first quarter of 2026,” said the agency.
“In addition to the unemployment rate (LU1), other measures of labour underutilisation (LU) were measured.
“The combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment (LU2) increased by 1.6 percentage points to 35.9%; the combined rate of unemployment and potential labour force (LU3) increased by 1.6 percentage points to 43.7% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2026.”
Labour underutilisation
Stats SA said the composite measure of labour underutilisation (LU4) (which combines time-related underemployment, unemployment and potential labour force as a proportion of extended labour force) was 46.3% in the first quarter of 2026.
“These labour underutilisation measures highlight people in different situations and with different degrees of attachment to the labour market.”
Data also showed that 189 000 people in the formal sector lost their jobs during the quarter, while a further 127 000 jobs were lost in the informal sector.
Employment by industry and province
According to Stats SA, manufacturing hired 38 000 people during the period, followed by mining with 32 000 and agriculture with 10 000.
Community and social services recorded the highest decreases in employment by 206 000, followed by construction (110 000) and transport (30 000).
The agency said KwaZulu-Natal is the only province that recorded an increase in jobs by 6 000. North West lost most jobs (80 000) during the period, followed by Gauteng (67 000), Mpumalanga (54 000), Eastern Cape (43 000) and Limpopo (43 000).
