South Africans are anxiously waiting for the much-anticipated employment numbers which Statistics South Africa will release during a media briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey – which was due on August the 11th.
The second-quarter number is expected to reflect the worst impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy resulting from the hard lockdown which saw the halting of most economic activity from April to June.
The unemployment rate was recorded at 30.1% in the first quarter.
Last month Stats SA reported that the delay in the release of the job numbers resulted from new data collection methods which the agency had to adopt as a result of COVID-19. The agency said that in the past it would send out field officers to collect data but due to COVID-19 restrictions, it had to collect the data by telephone.
Analysts expect unemployment to have accelerated to over 34% in the second quarter of this year.
The expected increase in the unemployment rate is attributed to the hard lockdown government implemented from March in an effort to arrest the spread of the COVID-19.
Dire predictions about South Africa’s unemployment rate:
