Cosatu Welcomes Fall in Unemployment But Warns Crisis Remains Far From Over

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has welcomed the latest labour force figures released by Statistics South Africa, describing the decline in unemployment as encouraging but cautioning that the overall joblessness rate remains dangerously high.

According to the federation, the third quarter of 2025 showed a notable improvement in the labour market. The expanded unemployment rate fell by 0.6 percentage points to 42.4%, while the official rate dropped by 1.3 percentage points to 31.9%.

Cosatu highlighted the creation of 248 000 jobs during the quarter, pushing the total number of employed South Africans to more than 17.1 million. Over the same period, the number of unemployed people declined by 360 000, bringing the total to 8 million.

Cosatu described the shift as welcome progress and said the gains must be protected and intensified as the country heads into the festive season, when employment historically rises in retail and hospitality. The federation added that after years of economic strain, South Africa is: “long overdue” for positive labour market developments.

However, Cosatu warned that the unemployment crisis remains profound, emphasising that a 42.4% expanded joblessness rate represents an unsustainable threat to the country’s social stability. The organisation said that despite the improvement, the scale of the crisis demands far greater intervention from the state, particularly in strengthening frontline public and municipal services that underpin economic activity.

The federation urged the government to accelerate infrastructure investment, expand public employment programmes, and provide targeted relief to poor households and the unemployed.

Cosatu also placed responsibility on the private sector, urging companies to end what it characterised as an investment strike and to channel capital into government bonds, infrastructure projects, and job-rich sectors such as industry, manufacturing, and agriculture.

The federation argued that unemployment remains the single greatest threat to South Africa’s future and called for a co-ordinated national effort to drive job creation.