South Africa’s unemployment crisis worsens

South Africa’s unemployment crisis deepened in the third quarter, official data showed, with anger over the lack of jobs spilling into the country’s politics and its debate over migration. The official unemployment rate reached 33.7%, slightly higher than the previous three months, with 8 million-plus people looking for work and more than four in five of them unemployed for at least a year, Statistics South Africa said in Tuesday’s update.

The data deepens questions about the economic record of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who made job creation a central priority after taking office in 2018. It also risks compounding voter fury that has battered Ramaphosa’s African National Congress at the polls, and feeds into a combustible political environment in which migrants are blamed for competition over jobs and public services.

— Tiisetso Motsoeneng