Just over a third (34.4%) of the South African labour force is unemployed, according to Stats SA. This is the highest unemployment rate since the Quarterly Labour Force Survey was first published by Stats SA in 2008. It is also an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2021.
The unemployment rate among women is close to 37%, increasing by 2.8 percentage points since last quarter. In comparison, the unemployment rate for men has rise by 1 percentage point to 32.4%
Women have historically had a higher level of unemployment than men but post-lockdown in early 2020 the number of women unemployed has seen a marked increase.
Discouraged
In addition to the number of people unemployed there are also those people who are classified by Stats SA as “discouraged work-seekers”. These are people who are able to and want to work but have giving up trying to find a job because of a lack of opportunities. They are part of a group defined as not economically active.
During the hard lockdown in April 2020, the unemployment rate dropped as the pandemic increased the number of people defined as not economically active. This changed when restrictions started to lift and the economy re-opened.
Before the national lockdown in 2020, 7.7% of women were discouraged work-seekers by June 2021, 9.3% of women said they were longer looking for work.
The provinces where the highest proportion of working-age adults have basically given up looking for a job are the Northern Cape and Limpopo.
Biggest impact for women
The community and social services sector is the biggest employer of women in South Africa. It includes jobs in education and health. The number of people employed in this sector dropped sharply during the lockdowns and has yet to recover.
