The unemployment rate reached a record high of 35.3% in the fourth quarter of last year while the expanded definition of joblessness stood at 46.2%.
JOHANNESBURG - Some economists have again raised concern about low response rates in the data collection process for the Quarterly Labour Force Survey as the country awaits the release of the latest unemployment figures.This definition included discouraged job seekers.
The data will illustrate whether Stats SA has managed to get more people to take part in the survey after recording a low response rate that declined from 76.9% to a low of 44.6% in the fourth quarter of last year.Eyewitness News spoke to two economists, who say they are wary to project what the new unemployment rate could be in the first quarter given the challenges faced by Stats SA in its data collection.
Meanwhile, some reports are quoting economists who expect that the rate will not change much for the period under review while some anticipate a drop in part-time jobs due to seasonal labour shifts, which impact mainly fourth quarter data only.