South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 27.5 percent in the third quarter from 27.2 percent in the second quarter, the country’s statistics office said on Tuesday.

Statistics South Africa said in its quarterly labour force survey in Johannesburg that there were 6.2 million people without jobs in the three months to the end of September.

The office said the figure was against the 6.1 million people without job in the prior quarter.

The statistics office said the formal sector, private households and agriculture recorded declines in employment, while the informal sector had employment gains.

It said that the expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, rose slightly to 37.3 per cent in the third quarter from 37.2 per cent in the previous quarter. (Reuters/NAN)

– Oct. 30, 2018 @ 13:25 GMT |