South Africa's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in the second quarter to its highest level since 2022, driven by job losses in the trade and agriculture sectors, according to data from Statistics South Africa released on Tuesday in the capital Pretoria.

The unemployment rate advanced to 33.5% in the three months to June, compared to 32.9% in the previous quarter, reports Bloomberg.

The number of people employed fell by 92,000 to 16.7 million.

The unemployment rate rose despite a significant improvement in the performance of state-owned energy company Eskom Holdings, which did not have to ration electricity during the quarter.

South Africa's economic growth has been hampered by scheduled power cuts.

With 8.4 million unemployed, South Africa's unemployment rate remains one of the highest in the world. This is a major challenge for the country's new governing alliance, formed after the May 29 elections, in which the African National Congress lost its majority for the first time since 1994.

The "Government of National Unity" has promised to prioritize job creation and economic reform to boost growth, which has averaged just one percent over the last decade.

"All employment sectors decreased between the first and second quarter of 2024, except for the informal sector, which increased by 48,000 jobs," said general statistician Risenga Maluleke.

He also noted that the growing gap between the labor force participation rate and the absorption rate "means that the number of jobs being created is not capable of dealing with the issue of unemployment."

The labor force participation rate, or the share of the working-age population working or actively looking for a job, shrank by a tenth of a percentage point to 60.6%, while the employment-population ratio fell to 40.3% from 40.7% in the previous quarter.