S Africa jobless rate hits 12-year high

PRETORIA: Nearly a third of South Africa’s workforce was unemployed in the third quarter of 2020, a 12-year high, as the continent’s most advanced economy was battered by the Covid pandemic, according to government figures released Thursday.

Between July and September, the jobless rate surged by 7.5 percentage points to affect 30.8 percent of the workforce, the national statistics agency StatsSA said. “In the 3rd quarter of 2020 there were significant movements in the South African labour market... which resulted in a significant increase of 7.5 percentage points in the unemployment rate to 30.8%,” it said.—AFP