Okuhle Hlati staff writer IN YET ANOTHER setback for South Africa’s economic recovery plans, the country has reached its new highest unemployment rate of 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021.
Stats SA published its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QFLS) on Tuesday for the first quarter of 2021, which showed the number of employed people remained almost unchanged at 15 million, a slight decrease of 28,000.
The number of unemployed people increased by 8,000 to 7.2 million compared to the last three months of 2020, while the number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 201,000.
“It should be noted that during Q3 2020, Q4: 2020 and Q1: 2021, the national lockdown regulations were relaxed, which allowed travelling, and this played a role in people actively looking for work, whereas…