South Africa’s unemployment rate decreased unexpectedly in the three months ended June, figures from Statistics South Africa showed Wednesday.
The unemployment rate fell to 25.0 percent in the second quarter from 26.4 percent in the preceding quarter. Economists had expected the jobless rate to increase slightly to 26.5 percent.
In the corresponding period of the previous year, the unemployment rate was 25.5 percent.
The number of unemployed people decreased to 5.23 million in the June quarter from 5.53 million in the March quarter. A year ago, the jobless figure totaled 5.15 million.
Meanwhile, the number of employed people increased to 15.7 million in the second quarter from 15.5 million in the prior quarter.
The labour force participation rate came in at 58.1 percent in the three-month period to June, down from 58.6 percent in the previous three months.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com