Unemployment is one of the burning problems in South Africa, as thousands of citizens are out of their houses looking for jobs. The rate of unemployment has increased due to the warm welcome of immigrants, increasing inflation, and less revenue generation. Let’s learn to calculate the unemployment rates and discuss the factors that multiply unemployment in the region.
How to Calculate Unemployment Rate?
When it comes to unemployed individuals, most analysts include all the people doing business, earning through commissions, or having sideways to make money into the list of unemployed. However, an unemployed individual is one who is looking for a job and is out of work. Simply put, one who does not have any source of income, whether active or passive, is looking for a job.
Calculating unemployment is not a complex task, any one of us can perform a calculation. We need to know the labor force and number of unemployed people, and we can find the rates in our country. Economists have advanced approaches and programs to find accurate rates of unemployment; however, we can use a formula for an estimation.
Unemployment Rate = (Number of Unemployed People / Total Labor Force) × 100%
Now, we need to add numbers to the formula to find the rate. Let’s say the number of unemployed individuals is 2000, and the total labor force is 20,000. See the formula below:
Unemployment Rate = (2000 / 20,000) × 100%
0.1= (2000 / 20,000) × 100%
10% = 0.1 × 100%
Unemployment rate is 10%.
Another Example
Unemployment Rate = (1.1 million / 7.6 million) × 100%
0.1447368421 = (1.1 million / 7.6 million) × 100%
14.47% = 0.1447368421 × 100% The unemployment rate is 14.47%.
South African Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rates in South Africa are increasing day by day, surging to 32.9%. In simple words, the fourth quarter of the population in the country is unemployed and suffering from harsh financial crises. The government has launched a list of financial assistance programs, but unemployment rates are rising even after using all kinds of methods.
Reasons
Slow Growth: The South African economy is growing, but the speed of growth is very slow, so unemployment is increasing. It means that investment is coming to South Africa, but at a very slow pace, certain companies are making progress while others are in financial crises.
Inequality: Another problem people face is inequality when it comes to opportunities. For example, people referred by strong personalities get employment, while skilled people remain unemployed because they do not have links.
Apartheid Legacy: South Africa is one of those countries that faced extreme racial segregation issues in the past, and these problems still haunt the economy and job opportunities of people in the country.
Unemployment is one of the biggest issues for South Africans, the country is facing the highest unemployment rates throughout the entire continent of Africa. Currently, the unemployment rate in the country is 32.9%. Anyhow, I have explained the simple method to find the unemployment rate, South African unemployment, and the reasons why it has surged in the past few years, I hope this information will help you in the future; thank you.