South African jobless numbers at record high after Covid surge

SOUTH Africa’s unemployment rate surged to a record high of 34.4pc in the second quarter as Covid continued to devastate the economy.

The jobless rate was the highest since records began in 2008 and the worst out of 82 countries monitored by Bloomberg.

The figure is even higher – at 44.4pc – if those unemployed and not looking for work are taken into account.

The unemployment rate in both Nigeria and Namibia is about 33pc, and about 15pc in Spain and Greece.

More than 7.8m South Africans were out of work by the end of June according to Statistics South Africa, an increase of 584,000 on the previous three months.

Risenga Maluleke, the statistician general, said: “The impact of Covid-19 that we are seeing is most firms have closed down.”

The figures are likely to keep rising in the third quarter due to widespread curbs introduced in an effort to stifle the number of Covid cases, which

remain elevated after surging to a peak in early July.

Andrew Levy, an employment analyst, told the broadcaster SABC that the figures were a “serious wake-up call” for the South African government.

The country’s economic pain has also intensified since June amid widespread protests that claimed hundreds of lives and led to many businesses being looted.

Thousands of South Africans took to the streets last month after the former president Jacob Zuma was jailed for failing to appear at a corruption hearing – destroying lorries, forcing shop closures and blocking supply routes.

Unemployment has been a longstanding issue in South Africa where at least a fifth of the population has been out of work for the past two decades, even during an economic boom for much of that period.

The president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has made job creation a key goal. However, his efforts to revamp Africa’s most industrialised economy have been frustrated by the pandemic, which has killed nearly 80,000 people. The economy contracted by 7pc last year.