EFF statement on Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force statistics for Quarter 2 of 2024
13 August 2024
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the latest quarterly labour force statistics, released today by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) for the second quarter of 2024, and how they reveal a grim reality for South Africa's working class. The unemployment rate has increased by 0.6% from quarter 1 to 33,5%—a damning indictment of a system that continues to fail the most marginalised.
This increase is defined by an increase in discouraged work-seekers by 147,000, coupled with a rise of 72,000 in the total number of economically inactive individuals.
This highlights a growing disillusionment with a job market that is increasingly inaccessible.
The statistics for youth unemployment are equally alarming. Out of around 10.3 million young people aged 15 to 24 in the second quarter of 2024, a shocking 35.2% are entirely cut off from employment, education, or training. This is a worsening of the situation from last year, with the NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) rate rising for both young men and women.