Higher unemployment rate in South Africa gets worse

The rate of unemployment in South Africa is substantially higher, according to Census 2011.Statistician General Pali Lehlola presented the results for 2011 population survey to the President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria yesterday.

The total population has risen to 51.8 million, 8.2 percent higher than in 2007.80% of population are black, 9% are coloured,9% are while and 2.5% are Asian. According to the Census, the unemployment rate was 29.8 percent, which is 6% higher than the 23.9% finding generated by the 2011 fourth quarter labour force survey.  The expanded unemployment rate, which includes people who did not actively look for work in the period, comes out at 40 percent, compared with 35.4 percent in the labour force survey. The official unemployment rate is highest among black Africans: 35.6 percent, compared with 22.3 percent for coloureds, 11.7 percent for Asians and 5.9 percent for whites.

The higher unemployment rate was caused by an increase in unemployment and a decrease in employment. The number of unemployed is at 6 million – 1.3 million higher than the QLFS finding; while the number of employed was found to be 317 000 lower at 13.2 million. –Communication Services