South Africa loses almost 100,000 jobs in 1 year, netizens are broken

• More than 80,000 South Africans lost their jobs between March 2024 and 2025, according to Statistics South Africa
• StatsSA released its Quarterly Employment Statistics, which paint a bleak picture of the extent of job losses
• Sectors including the services and mining sectors were the most hit by the job losses, and South Africans were reeling

Tebogo Mokwena, a dedicated Briefly News current affairs journalist, contributed coverage of international and local social issues, including health, corruption, education, unemployment, labour, service delivery protests, and immigration in South Africa, during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG — Almost 100,000 South Africans became jobless between March 2024 and 2025, and netizens were shattered by the job hemorrhage in the economy.

How many jobs were lost in 1 year?

Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) released its Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) on 24 June 2025, which revealed that 95,000 jobs were lost between March 2024 and 2025. The trade industry lost the most jobs, losing 52,000 jobs. The community services industry lost 17,000 jobs, and the mining sector lost 4,000 jobs.

StatsSA also reported that 74,000 jobs were lost in the first quarter of 2024, which was a 0.7% decrease from the previous quarter. The number of full-time jobs also decreased from 9,503,000 to 9,448,000 in the first quarter. The trade industry lost 34,000 jobs, the community services sector lost 10,000 jobs, and the business services industry lost 11,000 jobs.

Which industries saw an employment increase?

The industry gained 5,000 full-time jobs in the same period, even though it lost 6,000 jobs from January to March. The business services sector saw an increase of 10,000 in the same period, and the electricity and transport industries remained unchanged.

Past unemployment stats

StatsSA released the official unemployment stats for the fourth quarter of 2024 in February. The stats showed that the unemployment rate dropped from 32.1% in the third quarter of 2024 to 31.9% in the fourth quarter.

The Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, received criticism after he revealed that 34.7% of Gauteng residents were unemployed in May. The stats meant that about 2.7 million Gauteng residents are unemployed.

What did South Africans say?

Netizens commenting on @ewnupdates' X tweet were devastated.

JN said:

"ANC has wrecked this country. Over eight million people are unemployed. Unemployment should have been a crisis when it hit arond 15%."

Unfiltered said:

"SA is lost in a quagmire of nepotism, corruption, and ANC cadre self-enrichment."

Bashier Sallie said:

"Not to worry. The National Dialogue will fix this."

Trudie Van Straaten said:

"There goes the 0.1% growth."

Mandalino said:

"ANC and DA don't care."

Stellenbosch professor discusses unemployment

In a related article, Briefly News reported that a professor from Stellenbosch University discussed the country's unemployment on Workers' Day. He said that the informal sector can absorb jobs.

Professor Dieter von Fintel said that the pressure is on the formal sector to create jobs and noted that it's difficult for first-time job seekers to get into the job market. He said Job seekers would have to adapt their skill sets to the demands of generative artificial intelligence.

Source: Briefly News