Joblessness rises as SA buckles under power cuts
At less than 60%, the overall labour participation rate further emphasizes the fragility of the economy
SA’s unemployment rate edged up slightly in the first quarter, with the highest employment losses recorded in energy-intensive and private household sectors, pointing to the impact heightened rotational power outages, high interest rates and accelerating inflation have inflicted on the economy.
Load-shedding averaged stages 4 and 3 in February and March respectively, leading to a flurry of downward revisions of the economic growth forecast — and with interest rates above prepandemic levels, having increased 425 basis points since the start of the hiking cycle, households too have felt direct pressure on disposable income...
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