South Africa’s real youth unemployment rate

South Africa’s youth unemployment rate has skyrocketed over the past decade, and an increasing number of young people are giving up on finding a job altogether.

According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) for Q1 2025, young people aged 15 to 34 make up roughly 50.2% of South Africa’s working-age population.

This translates to approximately 20.9 million individuals. In the first quarter of 2015, the official unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 34 was 36.9%.

Over the past decade, this number has climbed 9.2%, bringing the youth unemployment rate up to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025.

Officially, there were 4.8 million unemployed youth in South Africa as of Q1 2025. However, this doesn’t demonstrate the real scale of youth unemployment.

According to Stats SA’s data, only 5.67 million South Africans aged 15-34 are employed. Notably, 10.4 million people in this group were not economically active, which means they were not actively looking for a job.

Reasons could include being a student, homemaker, having an illness or disability, or being a discouraged job seeker – meaning they had given up looking for work.

When including the number of discouraged jobseekers, the real unemployment rate rises to over 6.7 million South Africans aged 15-34.

“The challenges facing young South Africans in the employment space are not new, but they are trending negatively in many cases,” Stats SA said. “Over the past ten years, youth unemployment has remained persistently high.”

Within this cohort, the 15-24 age group represents around 10.3 million individuals and faces the highest barriers to entering the workforce.

In Q1 2015, this youth group had an unemployment rate of 50.3%. A decade later, it has shot up to 62.4%. Among those aged 25 to 34, the rate increased from 31.4% to 40.4% over the same period.

Interestingly, Stats SA found that youth unemployment is spread unevenly across the country, with the North West and the Eastern Cape being standouts.

In the first quarter of 2025, the North West recorded a youth unemployment rate of 58.8%. Additionally, only 43.0% of its young people aged 15–34 were active in the labour market.

The Eastern Cape had a dismal employment rate of only 54.3%. The province had the lowest youth labour force participation rate nationally at 39.8%. This means that fewer than four in ten young people were employed or looking for work.

Discouraged job seekers on the rise

Given how many young people are struggling to find work, it is unsurprising that the number of discouraged job seekers also increased during the quarter.

“For many young South Africans, landing a job is more than just a milestone – it is a crucial step toward economic independence and inclusion,” Stats SA said. “Yet for millions, this first step remains out of reach.”

In the first quarter of 2025, approximately 1.9 million youth aged 15–34 were classified as discouraged work-seekers.

In comparison, 1.5 million adults aged 35–64 fall into this category. “The figures reveal how young people are especially vulnerable to discouragement, driven by limited experience and fewer employment opportunities.”

Among the 4.8 million unemployed youth in Q1:2025, 58.7% reported having no previous work experience. That means nearly six in ten unemployed young people are still waiting for their first opportunity to enter the job market.

“Without experience, youth struggle to get hired – yet without being hired, they cannot gain experience. This cycle of exclusion continues to fuel long-term unemployment and stalls skills development at a critical stage of life.”

According to Stats SA, education is pivotal in determining young people’s employment prospects. Those without a matric qualification face the steepest uphill climb.

This group had an unemployment rate of 51.6%, the highest across all education levels. The situation was marginally better for those who had completed matric, though the unemployment rate remained high at 47.6%.

Youth who obtained vocational or technical training fared better, with the unemployment rate reduced to 37.3%.

The most apparent advantage is seen among university graduates, whose unemployment rate drops significantly to 23.9%, illustrating the protective effect of higher education in a tight labour market.

Where are the jobs?

Pnet’s May 2025 Job Market Trends Report examined what jobs are available for young job seekers trying to enter the market.

Analysing advertised vacancies over the past 12 months, Pnet found that about 10% of jobs are allocated to young job seekers with limited work experience.

The majority of these vacancies are entry-level and junior-level jobs. In contrast, internships and student jobs were less common in the South African job market.

Pnet also investigated which sectors offer job opportunities for young job seekers. Naturally, some sectors had significantly more job opportunities available than others.

For example, one of the sectors with the lowest amount of youth jobs was “Business & Management”. This is because employment in this sector requires high expertise and experience.

Based on youth job opportunities advertised online over the last 12 months, there was a clear picture of which sectors are more likely to offer jobs for young job seekers.

Proportionally, Design, Media, & Arts was the top sector to provide job opportunities for young jobseekers. In second place is Architecture & Engineering, followed by Finance, Sales, and Admin, Office & Support.

Building & Construction and IT sectors provide a relatively small proportion of youth jobs. However, due to the size of these job sectors and the fact that they produce plenty of jobs, both sectors generate a sizeable amount of youth jobs.