South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 32.6%, up 0.1 percentage point from the final quarter of 2020, the quarterly labour force survey was released by Statistics South Africa last week.

The results of the survey show that unemployment in South Africa has reached some of the highest levels in the country’s history.

In terms of the unemployed, Stats SA now records that there are more than 11 million people who are unemployed.

This number of unemployed may be even bigger, considering that a large number of the so-called 17-million not economically active is made up of home-makers and/or previously discouraged workers, many of whom would readily accept decent work if on offer.

The survey reveals that the official unemployment rate among youth (15-34 years) was 46.3% in quarter 1, 2021.

To assist us on this we are joined by Labour Analyst, Mamokgethi Molopyane and Lelona Mxesibe, Researcher and Budget Analyst at the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute…