Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) – Q2:2019
30 July 2019
The results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter of 2019 released by Statistics South Africa, indicate that the official unemployment rate increased by 1, 4 percentage points to 29, 0% compared to the first quarter of 2019. The number of unemployed persons increased by 455 000 to 6, 7 million in Q2: 2019 compared to Q1: 2019, resulting in an increase of 476 000 in the labour force.
The South African working-age population increased by 150 000 in Q2:2019 compared to Q1:2019. The results further indicate that the number of discouraged work-seekers decreased by (248 000) and the other not economically active population by 77 000 resulting in the net decrease of 326 000 in the number of those who were not economically active.
Employment in the Formal sector and Private households declined by 49 000 each. The Informal sector and Agriculture on the other hand recorded increases of 114 000 and 5 000 respectively.
An increase of 21 000 in the number of people in employment in the second quarter of 2019 was mainly driven by Trade (84 000), Community and social services (48 000), Construction (24 000) and Manufacturing (9 000). However, employment losses were recorded in Private households (49 000), Transport (42 000), Mining (36 000) and Finance and other business services (21 000).