SA’s unemployment rate jumps to 30.8% in Q3

South Africa’s unemployment rate jumped to 30.8% in the third quarter from 23.3% in the second quarter, the country’s statistics agency said on Thursday.

The unemployment rate was artificially low in the second quarter because the statistics agency only classifies people as unemployed if they are actively looking for work, which many people were unable to do in the April-June quarter because of a strict coronavirus lockdown.

Statistics South Africa put the number of unemployed at 6.5 million people in the third quarter, compared to 4.3 million in the previous three months.