Statistics South Africa is expected to publish its Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2026 in the coming days, giving the first official reading of the job market since the local government elections. A market calendar lists the release for Tuesday 10 November, but we could not access Stats SA's release schedule to confirm the date.
Where the rate stands
Stats SA reported in August that the official unemployment rate rose to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026. The expanded definition, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, is always higher than the official rate.
A year earlier, Stats SA's third-quarter 2025 survey showed the official rate falling to 31.9%, with about 248,000 jobs added in the quarter. That gives readers a yardstick for whether the labour market has improved or slipped over the past year.
Why the release matters
Unemployment is one of the issues voters have raised most often in this election cycle, and the figures feed into the Reserve Bank's thinking. The Monetary Policy Committee is due to announce its next interest rate decision on 19 November.
What we do not yet know
- The confirmed release date and time. Stats SA's own calendar was not accessible when this was written.
- The consensus forecast for the third-quarter rate. We have not been able to verify one against a published source.
- Which sectors drove job gains or losses in the quarter, which will only be clear once the survey is released.
