Youth unemployment in South Africa remained at a critical 43.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025, with a sharp rise in discouraged young job-seekers underscoring the deepening crisis in the labour market.
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows that while social grants such as the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) provide essential income support, they are not sufficient to tackle the country’s structural employment challenges.
The survey reported that overall employment increased by 44,000 to 17.1 million. However, the number of discouraged work-seekers, those who have stopped actively looking for work, jumped by 233,000 to 3.7 million. At the same time, 172,000 fewer South Africans were actively searching for jobs, suggesting growing disengagement, particularly among youth entering the labour market for the first time.
The labour data was released just days after President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the State of the Nation Address (SONA), during which he confirmed that the SRD grant would continue and be redesigned to better support livelihoods, skills development, and work opportunities.
While the continuation of the grant has been welcomed by many as necessary social protection, labour market analysts caution that income support must be paired with deliberate employment pathways if youth unemployment is to decline meaningfully.
Dr Memuna Williams, founder and CEO of Empowering Sustainable Change, told the Saturday Star that while grants are vital for alleviating poverty, they are not designed to create jobs.
“Grants are necessary for social protection,” Williams said.
“But they do not create jobs. If we are serious about tackling youth unemployment, grants must be intentionally linked to skills development, work experience and entrepreneurship.”
“Williams called for continued reforms in energy, logistics and the broader business environment to stimulate growth, alongside the expansion of paid internships, learnerships and youth employment programmes that provide both income and practical experience.”
“First, keeping up the reform effort on energy, logistics and the business environment so the economy can grow faster and create more jobs. Second, pairing grants with active measures like paid internships, learnerships and youth employment programs, so young people get experience and references while receiving a stipend. Third, using grants and complementary schemes to reduce the cost of looking for work or starting something small, for example, support with transport, data, or small seed amounts tied to training and entrepreneurship milestones,” she explained.
Williams further emphasised reducing barriers to entry into the labour market, including transport costs, access to data and small-scale seed funding tied to training or enterprise milestones.
Williams said the scale of youth unemployment makes feelings of discouragement understandable.
“Given the numbers, it is completely understandable that many young people feel discouraged. The first step is to acknowledge that reality honestly,” Williams said.
However, she cautioned against framing the situation as entirely stagnant, pointing to signs of movement in key sectors.
“But we also need to highlight where progress is happening: overall unemployment has started to edge down, there has been movement on energy and logistics, and there are countless examples of young South Africans creating value in tech, services, creative industries, green economy and the township economy. To encourage belief, we need to do three things: make pathways visible, lower the barriers to taking the first step, and surround young people with support.”
Marc Lubner, executive chairperson and group CEO of Afrika Tikkun, said the national conversation risks framing young people primarily as beneficiaries of aid rather than participants in economic growth.
“Young people do not want to rely on grants,” Lubner said. “They want opportunities, whether in employment or through building their own businesses.”
He noted that despite record numbers of matriculants entering the labour market, youth employment declined by 113,000 in Q4 2025 alone. Many school-leavers lack work experience, making entry into the formal sector increasingly difficult.
Lubner argued that policy responses should move beyond preparing job-seekers to also developing job-creators, particularly in a digital and project-based economy.
“The only meaningful response to this reality is to pivot away from training job seekers and toward building job creators. This means equipping young people with the skills to market their services online, manage project-based income, set up digital payment systems, and grow small businesses capable of becoming future employers. Equipping young people to build enterprises does not happen at the point of school-leaving; it requires years of holistic support, from early childhood through to the moment they are ready to step into the economy.”
With nearly 80% of unemployed individuals classified as long-term unemployed and youth unemployment among those aged 25–34 exceeding 44%, economists warn that modest employment gains cannot mask the structural nature of the crisis.
As the government moves to redesign the SRD grant, experts maintain that its effectiveness will depend on whether it becomes a bridge to skills and work opportunities or remains primarily a lifeline in an economy struggling to generate sufficient jobs.
Adding to concerns, the Public Servants Association (PSA) said it is alarmed by the decline in the number of unemployed people who are actively seeking work, warning that the drop suggests growing disengagement from the labour market.
“The PSA is particularly troubled by the simultaneous decline in active job seekers, which signals that more citizens are becoming entirely disengaged from the labour market,” the association said.
“These figures point to the structural nature of South Africa’s jobs crisis, where many citizens have effectively lost hope of securing meaningful employment,” the PSA said.
In his address, Ramaphosa said the grant, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, had “kept millions of South Africans out of food poverty” and would remain in place as a transformative tool to support vulnerable citizens.
“This year, we will redesign the grant to more effectively support livelihoods, skills development, work opportunities and productive activity,” Ramaphosa said.
“We know that most of the money provided through social grants is spent on food and transport.”
Saturday Star