The latest statistics released in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) of the second quarter of 2021 revealed that black African women are the most vulnerable, with an unemployment rate of 41%. 

Unemployment among white women is at 8.2%, 22.4% among Indian/ Asian women and 29,9% among coloured women. The report further pointed out that women, in general, are more vulnerable to unemployment than men.

In the second quarter of 2021, there were 36.8% unemployed women regardless of race, compared to 32.4% among men according to the official definition of unemployment.

The report further revealed the expanded unemployment among women is at 48,7% and was 8.1 percentage points higher than among their male counterparts in the second quarter of 2021.

During the same period, there were fewer women than men in management positions, said the statistics agency.

“Women accounted for 43.4% of total employment in the second quarter of 2021. Of those in managerial positions, 66.9% were men compared to 33.1% of women,” said the report.

The overall unemployment rate hit a new record high with an increase of 1,8% to 34,4% from 32.6% in the first quarter. The agency said this was the highest unemployment rate since it started collecting data in 2008.

High unemployment was attributed to a large number of people moving from the “employed” and “economically active” categories to the unemployed. In the first quarter, there were 15, 0 million employed people compared to 14,9m in the second quarter. 

According to the expanded definition of unemployment that includes those discouraged from seeking work, 44.4% of the labour force was without work in the second quarter, from 43.2% in the first quarter.