Unemployment Remains High Despite Small Decline
Staff Writer
– February 18, 2026
3 min read
South Africa’s unemployment rate edged lower in the fourth quarter of 2025, falling to 31.4% from 31.9% in the third quarter, according to Stats SA. The improvement was modest, and came alongside declines in unemployment in six of the nine provinces.
The Western Cape recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the country, dropping to 18.1% from 19.7%. The Northern Cape improved sharply from 31.2% to 27.1%, while Limpopo saw unemployment decline from 29.8% to 28.2%. Gauteng saw only a marginal change, going from 33.1% to 33.0%. North West recorded a more notable fall, from 38.1% to 35.1%, and in Mpumalanga unemployment declined from 34.0% to 32.3%.
However, the picture was not uniformly positive. Unemployment increased in KwaZulu-Natal, rising from 31.7% to 32.3%, and in the Free State, where it moved from 36.2% to 37.2%. The Eastern Cape remained the worst-affected province, with unemployment climbing from 41.2% to 42.5%.
Despite the quarterly decline, South Africa’s unemployment rate remains extraordinarily high. The global average sits at roughly 5%. The unemployment rates in South Africa’s partner countries in BRICS are also low, at about 5% in China, Brazil, and India, while Russia’s rate is closer to 2%. By comparison, South Africa remains a stark outlier.
Bheki Mahlobo, economics and policy editor at The Common Sense, said sustained high growth is the only durable solution. “South Africa’s economic growth rate needs to lift to between 4% and 5% and hold there for 20 years to bring unemployment down from its present levels to nearer 10%,” he said.
Mahlobo added that tackling unemployment requires decisive policy reform. “South Africa’s very high rate of unemployment is one of the greatest tragedies of post-apartheid South Africa. It must be tackled with laser-like focus. The only way it can be solved is to make South Africa an investment-friendly destination.”
He argued that growth-retarding policies such as black economic empowerment, expropriation without compensation, and the National Health Insurance scheme should be scrapped and that South Africa must repair relations with key trading partners, particularly the United States, if it is to unlock sustained investment and job creation.
