South Africa’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 31.9% in the third quarter of 2025, according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa yesterday. In the previous quarter unemployment was measured at 33.2%.

Bheki Mahlobo, an economist at The Common Sense, said: “The truth about these things is that analysts will try and look very deeply into the reasons for a move like this, and whilst that is valuable and has its place, seasonal and methodological reasons, can be as important in explaining these moves. The point of which is just to say, that when your unemployment rate is north of 30% and it comes off by a point or two, not much has fundamentally shifted in the country’s economy.”

According to Stats SA, total employment rose by 248 000 to reach 17.1 million people, while the number of unemployed declined by 360 000 to 8 million.

[A reader may wonder, how if employment rose by 248 000, how unemployment could fall by 360 000. The reason relates to the methodological cautionary note that Bheki Mahlobo delivered above. To be counted as unemployed, for example, a person must be actively looking for work. If they stop looking for work, even though they still desire to have work, they may no longer be counted as unemployed. This may cause the unemployment rate to alter to even a greater extent, as in the case of this latest data, than might be the case as a consequence of the creation of new jobs.]

Year-on-year the unemployment rate dropped slightly from 32.1% to 31.9%. [In practise, a rounding error.]

The broader measure of joblessness, which includes discouraged work seekers, also eased on the official data, quarter-on-quarter, dropping from 43.0% to 42.4%.

Stats SA said the largest job gains were in construction, which added 130 000 jobs compared to the previous quarter, community and social services with 116 000, and trade with 108 000. The biggest losses were recorded in manufacturing, down 62 000 compared to the previous quarter, finance, down 54 000, and utilities, down 30 000.

Eight of South Africa’s nine provinces saw apparent declines in unemployment in the third quarter, compared to the previous quarter.