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South Africa: Unemployment rate

Percent · 1980–2025 · 46 observations · forecasts to 2031 · unemp

2025
32.3%percent
Change on 2024
−0.3 pointsfrom 32.6%
Average, 2016–2025
30.4%10 years
Record high and low
34.3% (2021)low 9.24% (1980)

Unemployment rate

Report error
5%10%15%20%25%30%35%198019902000201020202030South AfricaSouth Africa
ForecastPercent

Compare with other countries →Definition of Unemployment rate

Recent values

Percent

YearValue
203131.9Forecast
203032.0Forecast
202932.1Forecast
202832.2Forecast
202732.4Forecast
202631.7Forecast
202532.3
202432.6
202332.4
202233.5
202134.3
202029.2
201928.7
201827.1
201727.5
201626.7

Sources

  • IMF World Economic Outlook1980–2025
  • South African Reserve Bank1994–2025
  • IMF International Financial Statistics1995–2024
  • African Development Bank2000–2014
  • International Labour Organization2000–2023
  • OECD Economic Outlook2001–2025
  • World Bank Global Economic Monitor2001–2025
  • OECD Economic Outlook (forecast)2025–2027
  • IMF WEO (forecast)2025–2031

Compare these sources →

South Africa documentation (PDF)

More for South Africa

Real GDP per capita (USD)Nominal GDPReal GDPInflationGovernment debt (% of GDP)Current account (% of GDP)All 76 series →

Unemployment rate elsewhere

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Please cite: Müller, K., Xu, C., Lehbib, M., & Chen, Z. (2025). The Global Macro Database: A New International Macroeconomic Dataset. NBER Working Paper 33714. BibTeX →

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