South Africa’s unemployment rate is at a record high according to the statistics recently shared by Stats SA.
The recent unemployment figures show that the South African youth are most affected with over 70 percent facing joblessness. The unemployment rate of South Africans is the highest it’s ever been with just over 7 million citizens without jobs — an increase of 8000 people since last year. Additionally, South African’s young population are affected the most with 74.4 percent of them facing dire joblessness, university graduates included
The South African government declared unemployment a national emergency back in 2019 but it seems nothing has changed just yet, instead it’s gotten worse. South Africa’s unemployment rate currently stands at 32.6 percent, according to EWN.
Business Tech reports that at least 200 000 South Africans have been categorized as “discouraged work-seekers” with large numbers of people moving between “employed” to “not economically active” and “unemployed”.
According to OkayAfrica, South Africans have also expressed their anger towards continued corruption by politicians. The latest of these exposés has seen Minister of Health, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, under scrutiny for having allegedly benefited from R150 million that was meant for “questionable communications services” linked to his department, Daily Maverick reports.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and intermittent national lockdowns have been implicated in the deepening unemployment crisis.
