South Africa’s unemployment rate surges to 33.5% in H1 2024

South Africa’s official unemployment rate rose to 33.5% in the first half this year as the economic outlook worsens.

The country, once Africa’s largest economy, has failed to curb inequalities amid widespread criminality and infrastructure bottlenecks.

Unemployment in South Africa is now one of the highest globally and has exceeded Covid-19 levels, when a lockdown was imposed.

A new coalition government, led by the ANC, which has ruled the country since the fall of the apartheid regime, promised to tackle joblessness but, on the ground, little is being done to address obstacles to investment.

Recurrent power blackouts dealt a blow to the industrial sector ditching the country’s growth prospects.

Youth unemployment is even worse at an endemic 61% highlighting the lackluster growth that is unable to meet a rise in demand for jobs.