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What is the youth unemployment rate in South Africa?

62.8% of young people aged 15 to 24 in the labour force were unemployed in the second quarter of 2026, and 47.4% of those aged 15 to 34, from Stats SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey.

Unemployment rate by age, Q2 2026
  • Ages 15 to 2462.8%
  • Ages 15 to 3447.4%
  • Ages 15 to 64 (everyone)33.6%

Source: Stats SA, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2: 2026 (P0211), Table 2.2, pages 26 and 27. Source released . Checked on SA Data Hub . Original data: Stats SA. Any calculation shown is SA Data Hub's own processing.

How this was worked out

The 15 to 24 rate is printed in Table 2.2 (page 26). Stats SA does not print a 15 to 34 rate, so SA Data Hub works it out from the counts in the same table: (1 764 000 + 3 233 000) unemployed ÷ (2 808 000 + 7 741 000) in the labour force = 47.4%.

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