SA’s unemployment rate rises to 27.6% in Q1

South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 27.6% in the first quarter from 27.1% in the last quarter of 2018, official data showed on Tuesday.

There were 6.2 million people without jobs in the three months to the end of March, compared with 6.1 million people in the prior quarter, Statistics South Africa said its quarterly labour force survey.

The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, rose to 38% in the first quarter from 37.0% in the previous quarter.