JOHANNESBURG, 18 August. - (ANA) - South Africa’s unemployment rate climbed to its highest level since 2022 in the second quarter, official data showed. The figures highlight how improved investor confidence in the two years since the coalition government took office has been undercut by a deteriorating labor market.

 

More than 340,000 people joined the ranks of the unemployed between April and June, pushing the total number of jobless to 8.5 million, an unemployment rate of 33.6%. Youth unemployment rose to 47%. The data punctures the positive market response that followed the formation of the coalition government, which included the country’s first ratings upgrades in 20 years and being removed from a global financial watchdog’s “gray list” of countries under heightened scrutiny.

 

Economic hardship is spilling directly into politics as parties campaign ahead of municipal elections in November. In major urban centers, persistent joblessness has fueled a resurgence of anti-migrant rhetoric and vigilante violence targeting foreigners from neighboring African states, who are frequently accused of taking jobs and overloading local services. 

 

Xenophobic unrest in South Africa has become a painful cost of doing business, executives warned, signalling that companies are bracing for prolonged instability in a country eager to draw fresh investment.

 

Just over a week after mass protests froze parts of Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria — shuttering retail districts and triggering emergency security protocols — executives say the threat of renewed disruption has soured boardroom sentiment in an economy already grappling with the world’s highest unemployment rate, collapsing municipal services, and intensifying political agitation.

 

Economists say an exodus of foreign workers, which anti-migrant protesters are demanding, will trigger labor shortages and economic blowback, ultimately harming local businesses and informal markets that activists say they want to protect.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/18 August 2026 - - -