About 35.7% of South Africans aged 15 to 24, roughly 3.7 million young people, were not in employment, education or training in the third quarter of 2026, according to Statistics South Africa's Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS).

The figure sits behind the headline jobs data released on Tuesday, which showed the official unemployment rate edging up to 33.7% from 33.6% in the second quarter.

What the number measures

The "not in employment, education or training" (NEET) rate counts young people who are neither working nor studying nor in any training towards work. It captures young people who are cut off from both jobs and skills development, including many who have stopped looking for work.

How it compares

In the first quarter of 2026, Stats SA reported a NEET rate of 37.6% for people aged 15 to 24, about 3.9 million of 10.3 million young people. Measured against that quarter, the third-quarter figure is 1.9 percentage points lower. The second-quarter NEET rate was not available to us at the time of writing.

Youth unemployment remains far above the national rate. In the first quarter, Stats SA put unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds at 60.9% and among 25- to 34-year-olds at 40.6%, against 32.7% nationally.

The wider picture

Employment rose by 101,000 to about 16.8 million in the third quarter, and the number of unemployed people rose by 97,000 to about 8.6 million, according to Stats SA. The expanded unemployment rate, which includes people who have given up looking for work, was 44.0%.

What we do not yet know

  • The third-quarter youth unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds and 25- to 34-year-olds.
  • The NEET rate for people aged 25 to 34, which is higher than for the younger group.
  • The second-quarter NEET rate, which would show the quarter-on-quarter change.

The third-quarter NEET figure is taken from a single report of the survey and will be confirmed against the Stats SA release.