South Africa’s national unemployment rate dropped for the first time this year in the third quarter as the construction, community and trade industries added jobs.
According to data released by Statistics South Africa in Pretoria on Tuesday, 11 November 2025, the jobless rate declined to 31.9% in the three months through September, from 33.2% in the prior quarter. This is the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2024.
The number of unemployed fell by 360,000 to 8.1 million, the labor force dropped by 112,000 to 25.1 million, and employed individuals rose by 248,000 to 17.1 million.
While the province has managed to create forty two thousand jobs between July and September this year, the North West Premier Lazarus Mokgosi has indicated that the province is not out of the woods.
Mokgosi welcomed the recent encouraging figures of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey where unemployment in the province dropped by two percentage points.
“These figures are indicative of an administration hard at work to address the scourge of unemployment and poverty confronting the province. I have been crisscrossing the province speaking to various enterprises to see how best we can turn the tide on high unemployment figures in the province and I believe that our efforts are yielding desired results,” Mokgosi said.
Mokgosi further says efforts to create jobs in the province will be given impetus by the Provincial Mining Indaba and Investment conference planned for early next year.
“We recently met with Cabinet where we tabled our efforts to lure investments and drive our economic recovery initiatives and President Cyril Ramaphosa gave us a thumbs up on this ambitious efforts while offering some counseling on how we can circumvent these challenges,” said Mokgosi.
Mokgosi says the province has also made some significant strides in deterring job loses in ferrochrome mines.
“All these efforts and many others will find expression through a jobs summit that is aimed at devising strategies on preserving the available jobs while creating new ones in various industries as envisioned in the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy” said Mokgosi.
His spokesperson Sello Tatai confirmed that early this year the province adopted the Growth and Development Strategy to drive economic recovery plans centered on infrastructure development, service delivery, investments and job creation.
Meanwhile, Prof. Raymond Parsons, economist from the North-West University (NWU) Business School, said the latest labour survey for the third quarter of 2025 suggests that if these positive trends can continue, unemployment in South Africa may now have peaked.
“Although unemployment is still unacceptably high, the current economic recovery is now sufficiently supportive to make a modest dent in the overall unemployment picture. Six of the 10 industries tracked by Statistics South Africa recorded employment gains in the third quarter, while four saw decreases,” said Prof. Parsons.
Prof. Parsons admitted that there is still a long way to go, and there remains no quick fix for unemployment in South Africa.
“It confirms that the official emphasis in both short- and long-term policies must continue to be strongly on promoting job-rich growth, including in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement this week. Only when the economy reaches the more robust 3% medium-term gross domestic product growth target of the Government of National Unity will South Africa see an irreversible, sustained large increase in net job creation.”
According to Prof. Parsons, an important driver of job-rich growth is higher capital investment, and investment as a share of the gross domestic product therefore now needs to rise considerably.
The African National Congress (ANC) in the province said the current stats shows the continued efforts of the ANC-led government to create sustainable jobs and stimulate inclusive economic growth in our province and across the country.
“In the 2025 January 08th statement, the ANC outlined six (6) priority actions and specific tasks for the year 2025. Priority task number three (3) spoke to speeding up inclusive economic growth to create jobs, and went in detail on what needed to be done.
“This was further emphasized on the 14th of February 2025 by the NW ANC Provincial Chairperson, Cde Nono Maloyi, in the Provincial January 08th statement. It is therefore worth noting that the issues of unemployment remain a high priority crisis, and we continue to work tirelessly to erode it. The African National Congress gladly welcomes this improvement as it reflects the success of coordinated interventions aimed at revitalising key sectors of the economy, supporting small businesses, and promoting youth employment.”
The party claims that the provincial government’s focus on infrastructure investment, agricultural development, mining revitalisation, and township economy support programmes continues to bear fruit and create meaningful opportunities for our people.
They have also admitted that much more still needs to be done to address the structural challenges that contribute to unemployment, particularly among the youth and women.
