South Africa's Unemployment Falls to 31.4% in Q4 2025 as Economy Adds 44,000 Jobs, But Youth Crisis Deepens

South Africa's Unemployment Falls to 31.4% in Q4 2025 as Economy Adds 44,000 Jobs, But Youth Crisis Deepens

PRETORIA, 17 February 2026. South Africa's official unemployment rate declined by 0.5 percentage points to 31.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from 31.9% in the third quarter, as the economy added 44,000 net new jobs to bring total employment to 17.1 million people, Statistics South Africa reported on Tuesday.

The number of unemployed persons fell by 172,000 to 7.8 million in the October-to-December quarter, though the total labour force also contracted by 128,000, a pattern that economists noted partly reflected seasonal factors and workers becoming discouraged and exiting the labour market rather than finding employment. The labour force participation rate, which measures the share of working-age adults actively engaged in or seeking work, edged slightly lower as a result.

Formal sector employment drove the quarter's gains, adding 320,000 positions, while informal sector employment fell by 293,000, a divergence that suggested the quarter's job creation was concentrated among larger, more structured employers rather than the small and micro enterprises that absorb a significant portion of South Africa's unskilled workforce. By industry, the largest increases were recorded in community and social services, which added 46,000 positions, followed by construction at 35,000 and finance at 32,000.

The picture for young people remained bleak. Youth unemployment, measured for those aged 15 to 34, rose fractionally by 0.14 percentage points to 43.8%, even as the total number of unemployed youth fell by 84,000. Youth employment itself declined by 113,000 to 5.8 million, an outcome consistent with a pattern in which younger workers disproportionately move in and out of the labour force without securing sustained employment. Economists said the youth unemployment crisis, combined with more than 1.4 million young people classified as not in education, employment, or training, remained the most urgent social challenge arising from the labour market.

Broader labour underutilisation measures provided additional context. The combined rate of unemployment and time-related underemployment fell by 0.6 percentage points to 34.3%, while the measure including potential labour force participants stood at 42.1%. The composite measure of labour underutilisation, which incorporates all of these dimensions, was 44.5% in the fourth quarter.

South Africa's Quarterly Labour Force Survey is based on interviews with approximately 30,000 households across the country each quarter.