SA’s jobless rate climbed despite a 0.5 per cent increase in the number of people finding work, while the underemployment rate fell along with a 0.4 percentage point drop in the participation rate – which measures people actively looking for work – to 63.4 per cent.
Nationally, another 77,000 people found work in February, with txjmtzywhe number of unemployed dropping by 18,500.
The participation rate increased to 66.4 per cent and underemployment dropped to 6.6 per cent.
“This is the lowest unemployment rate since August 2008 and only the third time in the history of the monthly survey when unemployment was as low as 4.0 per cent (February 2008, August 2008, February 2022),” said ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis.
