South Africa’s unemployment rate has dropped by 0.5 percentage points in the final quarter of 2025, to 31.4% from 31.9% in the previous quarter.
However, the country has added 2.6 million people to the number of unemployed over the past ten years, with shocking levels of youth unemployment persisting.
According to Stats SA, this marks an increase of 44,000 people employed in the country, taking the total to 17.1 million.
There was also a decrease of 172,000 unemployed people—now down to 7.8 million—with the labour force dropping by 128,000 people on a net basis.
The changes in employment and unemployment led to the official unemployment rate decreasing, while the combined rate—the new proxy for the previous “expanded unemployment rate”—remains at 42.1% (down from 42.4% previously).
The combined rate reflects the number of unemployed persons, as well as those who are available to work but are discouraged or not seeking employment.
Stats SA noted that this is a different metric from the previous expanded unemployment rate, but it tracks very closely to that rate and will be used going forward.
Over the fourth quarter, discouraged job-seekers increased by 233,000 to 3.7 million.
Other available job-seekers decreased by 110,000 to 855,000, and unavailable job-seekers decreased by 41,000 to 42,000, resulting in a total net increase of 82,000 to 4.6 million in the potential labour force population.
Others outside the labour force increased by 165,000 to 12.5 million. Outside the labour force, which is the total of the potential labour force and other outside the labour force, increased by 248,000 to 17.1 million in Q4 of 2025.
In addition to the unemployment rate, other measures of labour underutilisation were measured.
The combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment decreased by 0.6 of a percentage point to 34.3%.
The composite measure of labour underutilisation—which combines time-related underemployment, unemployment and potential labour force as a proportion of the extended labour force—was 44.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 (down from 44.9% in the previous quarter).
These labour underutilisation measures highlight people in different situations and with different degrees of attachment to the labour market.
Overall, South Africa’s labour market shows improvements across all measures; however, the rates are still extremely high and reflect the persistent jobs crisis in the country.
Between Q4:2015 and Q4:2025, the number of unemployed persons in South Africa increased from 5.2 million to 7.8 million, with the proportion of those in long-term unemployment increasing from 66.9% to 79.7% over the same period.
Youth unemployment also remains extremely high, with unemployment rates of those in the working age 25-34 sitting at 44.3%.
Approximately 3.5 million out of 10.3 million (or 34.0%) young people aged 15-24 years are also not in employment, education or training (NEET).
