The State of Unemployment in South Africa: Trends, Factors, Impacts and Recommendations

Description

Page: 1554-1558

Shangolirimini Demana, John Ntshaupe Molepo, and Annah Mokgadinyane (Department of Public Management, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa)

The main purpose of this article is to examine the trends, determine the factors and impact of unemployment in South Africa. The continuous rise of unemployment has a dire impact on the lives of South African citizens, particularly young people. During quarter 2 of 2025, statistics show that South Africa stands at 33.2% of unemployment rate. This is one of the highest unemployment rates in the history of South Africa. In 1994, when South Africa became a democratic country, many legislations were developed to improve employment services. This includes the introduction of Skills Development Act (No. 97 of 1998) and Employment Services Act (No. 04 of 2014), which regulate the employment services in South Africa. This article is non-empirical in nature and solely depends on secondary data to draw its conclusions. Systematic review was applied as a data collection method by interrogating existing literature such as peer-reviewed journals, articles and government reports. Different data sources like Google, Google Scholar, Scopus, government websites and university repositories were utilized to search for data. The thematic content approach was applied. Keynesian, search and matching, and human capital development theories were adopted to understand employment improvement in South Africa. The article found that factors such as a mismatch of skills supply and skills demand by employers, limited access to quality education and training, the COVID-19 pandemic and high labour force participation contribute to unemployment. The study recommended a multi-pronged approach such as policy making, good governance, improved service delivery and employment creation strategy as a means of improving employment in South Africa.