PRETORIA (Reuters) -South Africa’s official unemployment rate fell for the first time in a year in the third quarter, data showed on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate fell to 32.1% from 33.5% in the second quarter, Statistics South Africa said.
The last time the official rate fell was the third quarter of 2023.
South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, but the official rate eased in the latest three-month period thanks to growing employment in six of the 10 industries tracked by the statistics agency.
The highest number of job gains were in the community and social services sector.
Under an expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those discouraged from seeking work, 41.9% were jobless in the third quarter compared with 42.6% in second quarter.
(Reporting by Kopano Gumbi; Writing by Tannur Anders;Editing by Alexander Winning)
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