As South Africa’s unemployment rate for the three months to September 30 inched up to 25.5%, the youth remained on the sidelines of the country’s labour market, the latest quarterly report by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has shown.

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) showed that, while the youth, aged between 15 and 34, accounted for 55% of the working age population, they remained underrepresented in the workforce with only 40% employed.

Stats SA population and social statistics deputy director-general Kefiloe Masiteng explained that the share of youth in the working age population had decreased from 57.8% in 2008 to the current 54.8%; however, the share of youth in total employment had also declined from 44.3% in 2008 to 40.1%.

Overall, the youth of South Africa had an unemployment rate of 35.8% – 65.9% of these had been jobless for more than a year – a labour force participation rate of 49.9% and an absorption rate of 32.1%.

The unemployment rate of adults aged 35 to 64 reached 16.6%, with an absorption rate of 58.1% and labour force participation rate of 69.6% during the third quarter.

Of the 19.8-million youth, 9.9-million were economically active and only 6.4-million were employed, compared with the 9.5-million adults aged 35 to 64 years that were employed during the period to September.

Of the overall 36.1-million working age population between 15 and 64 years of age, 15.8-million were employed, 5.4-million were unemployed and 14.9-million were ‘not economically active’.

Of the ‘not economically active’, 15% were discouraged work seekers, while the balance did not have jobs owing to “other reasons”, including being students and homemakers.

A steady climb in the working age population, a 200 000 decrease in the ‘not economically active’ population and a 359 000 hike in the economically active population resulted in the unemployment rate rising to 25.5% in the quarter under review.

During the quarter, 171 000 people secured a job, while another 188 000 more people became unemployed, resulting in a 0.5 percentage point climb in the official unemployment rate.

Despite the uptick in the unemployment rate, the QLFS for the quarter showed a 0.3% quarter-on-quarter improvement in the overall absorption rate to 43.8% and an 0.7% increase in the labour force participation rate of 58.8% during the period under review.

South Africa aimed to reach a target of 24-million employed citizens, an unemployment rate of 6%, an absorption rate of 61% and a labour force participation rate of 65% by 2030.

The third-quarter expanded unemployment rate, which “relaxed” the requirement for job-seekers to be classified as unemployed, decreased by 0.5 of a percentage point to 34.4%.

The gap between the official and expanded unemployment rate also increased during the period under review to 8.9 percentage points, from 7.2 percentage points in the second quarter.

The formal sector accounted for the largest share of employment at 69.1% while the agriculture sector accounted for the lowest share at 5.7%.

Large quarterly employment gains were observed in the trade and construction industries, while the number of people employed in the mining industry remained unchanged between the second and third quarters.

Job losses were recorded in the transport, private households, utilities and finance industries.