Photo: Flickr South Africa’s unemployment rate climbed in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026 to 32.7% from 31.4% in the fourth quarter last year, a worrying sign as the economy has since had to grapple with soaring petrol prices and the twin spectres of accelerating inflation and slowing growth in the wake of the Iran conflict.
The quarterly labour force survey data, released on Tuesday by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), showed that the number of employed persons in the quarter fell by 345,000 to 16.8 million while the ranks of the unemployed swelled by 301,000 to 8.1 million.
In short, about a third of South Africa’s labour force is without a job and things are bound to get worse as the economic outlook sours with each passing day of the Middle East war triggered at the end of February by the US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Defying the trend, the manufacturing, mining and agricultural sectors – the traditional trio that historically have provided the bedrock of South Africa’s economy – added jobs. Manufacturing added 38,000 jobs, mining 32,000 and agriculture 10,000. The “skilled agriculture” category saw an increase of almost 60% from the previous quarter.
But for the most part it has been carnage. Community and social services – at a time of growing need – shed 206,000 jobs and the labour-intensive construction sector lost 110,000, a fall of 15.5%. Among the provinces, only KwaZulu-Natal added employment and that was a paltry 6,000.
Another concerning trend was a 2.0-percentage-point rise in youth unemployment to 45.8%.
The rate remains below the record high of 35.3% reached in Q4 2021 when the pandemic was still infecting the economy. But it is within striking distance of that peak again. DM