Stats SA on Thursday released the quarterly labour force survey of the third quarter of the year, which shows in increase of the unemployment rate to 30.8%.
The expanded unemployment rate increased by 1.1 percentage point to 43.1% in the third quarter.
The Bureau of Economic Research said that the third quarter unemployment stats would be one of the first indicators of the ‘permanent damage’ to the economy and the labour market due to the lockdown.
It could still take a number of years for employment numbers to return to pre-lockdown levels.