SA Women Struggle More Than Men to Find Work, Stats SA Data Shows

• Stats SA's Q2 2026 data showed South Africa's unemployment rate climbed to 33.6%, the highest in the world
• Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke pointed to childcare responsibilities as a key reason women struggle to enter the workforce
• The absorption rate gap between men and women reveals a stark divide in who actually finds and keeps work in SA

SOUTH AFRICA - South Africa's unemployment crisis is hitting women harder than men, according to the latest figures from Stats SA. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2026 showed the national unemployment rate climbed from 32.7% in Q1 to 33.6% in Q2, the highest rate anywhere in the world.

The numbers paint a grim picture. Around 8.5 million South Africans are now without work, a rise of 345,000 compared to the previous quarter. Over the same period, the number of employed people in the country dropped by roughly 16,000.

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Women carry a heavier burden

During a briefing on the report, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke drew attention to a structural barrier that holds women back even before they can accept a job offer.

"When women get employment, they don't just start working the following day. They have to make arrangements for who can take care of their children, how the children will travel to school and what the children will do when they are out of school," Maluleke said.

This reality is reflected clearly in the absorption rate, which measures the share of working-age people who are actually employed. The rate for men currently sits at 44.9%, compared to just 34.2% for women.

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The gap between men and women in SA's labour market

Maluleke was direct about what those numbers mean in practice.

"Men do enjoy more chances of being employed in our country than women do," he said.

Approximately one in every three working-age South Africans who are actively looking for work cannot find long-term employment. For women, domestic responsibilities add another layer of difficulty that men are far less likely to face, making it harder to take up opportunities even when they arise.

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The data underscores a pattern that goes beyond headline unemployment figures. For millions of South African women, the path to work is longer, more complicated and more dependent on support systems that are often unavailable or unaffordable.

Expert sounds the alarm on SA's unemployment crisis

Briefly News reported that a Wits University researcher says South Africa's unemployment crisis is now worse than the levels seen in the US and Britain during the Great Depression of the 1930s.Justin Visagie, an associate professor at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at University of the Witwatersrand said South Africans today have a lower chance of finding work than people did during one of the world's worst economic crises.

Source: Briefly News