Unemployment in SA is at its highest level since September 2003. The economy added 144,000 jobs during the first quarter but this was offset by the number of job-seekers surging by 433,000 people. The unemployment rate of 27.7% in the first quarter was up 1.2 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2016. "The gap in reaching the 2030 National Development Plan target of 24-million employed people is now 7.8-million‚" statistician-general Pali Lehohla said at the release of Statistics SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey on Thursday. The youth unemployment rate rose by 1.6 percentage points to 38.6%‚ with 58% of unemployed people aged between 15 and 34. "It’s very important‚ that the unemployment in these two age groups — of 15-24 and 25-35 — has increased. Once they’re unemployed for a period of time‚ things are getting harder and harder for them to get jobs‚" said Lehohla. Unemployment was high‚ at 33.1%‚ among people who had less than a matric‚ 5.4 percentage points higher than ...
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