Figures from  Statistics South Africa suggest that it indeed pays to go to school, with the unemployment rate among young graduates at 11% compared to 44.1% joblessness among their peers with no matric.

The Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Survey for 2018, released in Pretoria on Tuesday, show that unemployment was higher, at 38.8%, in young people between the ages of 15 and 34 compared to adults, at 17.9%, regardless of education.

Noticeable though is the fact that unemployment rate reduces as the level of education increases. However, the report also notes that the unemployment rate for young graduates was twice higher than that of their adults counterparts at 4.4%. At 39.1%, the rate of unemployed young people with matric is also high compared to adults from 34 to 63 years at 16.1%. Joblessness in general increased to 27.2% in the second quarter of the year‚ from 26.7% in the first quarter.

Sectors bleeding jobs in the second quarter are manufacturing with 105 000 jobs lost, followed by community‚ social and personal services at 93 000 job losses. Trade recorded the least job losses at 57 000 jobs. The transport sector added 54 000 jobs in the second quarter, while construction added 45 000 and mining added 38 000.

The official unemployment rate increased in five of the nine provinces, with the largest increase suffered by the Free State where unemployment rate was up by 1.6%, Gauteng by 1.2% and Western Cape 1%. The largest declines in the rate of unemployment was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal at 2.2%, followed by Northern Cape at 1.6 % and Limpopo with 1.4 %.