South Africa’s unemployment rate rises to 27.5%

South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 27.5 percent in the third quarter from 27.2 percent in the second quarter, the country’s statistics office said on Tuesday.

There were 6.2 million people without jobs in the three months to the end of September, compared with 6.1 million people in the prior quarter, Statistics South Africa said its quarterly labour force survey.

The statistics office said the formal sector, private households and agriculture recorded declines in employment, while the informal sector had employment gains.

The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, rose slightly to 37.3 percent in the third quarter from 37.2 percent in the previous quarter.

Source: af.reuters.com