South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria Top Global Unemployment Chart

Unemployment rates are skyrocketing in Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa which would likely push the two countries to the extreme of social-economic crises.

As reported on Tuesday by Bloomberg, South Africa has the highest rate among a list of 82 countries, as the unemployment rate hit a record high of 34.4 percent in the second quarter from 32.6 percent seen in the first quarter of the year.

Namibia has the second-highest unemployment rate rises at 33.4 percent, while Nigeria has the third-highest unemployment rate at 33.3 percent, the report said.

Source: Statistics South Africa, Bloomberg
Note: Some data are for different periods

According to the Bloomberg report, the median of three economists’ estimates in a survey was 33.2 percent.

Jordan occupied the fourth nation at 25.0 percent, with Costa Rica appearing as the fifth nation with an unemployment rate of 18.1 percent.

Unemployment, according to the expanded definition, includes people who were available for work but not looking for a job, which rose to 44.4 percent from 43.2 percent in the first quarter.

Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria ranked third on the global unemployment chart although yet to release its unemployment data for the year, however, the global health pandemic sees management laying off staff to curtail the adverse effect of COVID-19.

While the unemployment rate in South Africa is now the highest among the countries tracked by Bloomberg, the data from some of the nations could be outdated.

The unemployment data in South Africa is likely to deteriorate in the third quarter because the government tightened COVID-19 curbs in the face of the third wave of infections, hindering efforts to revive an economy that shrank 7 percent last year, the report said.

It added that the rising joblessness rate could heap pressure on authorities to extend relief measures that would complicate efforts to stabilise public finances.

There was also an eruption of deadly riots in July in the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, two key economic hubs, which claimed 354 lives and saw thousands of businesses looted and shuttered, report said.

The unrest cost the country about $3.3bn in lost output and placed at least 150,000 jobs at risk, according to the South African Property Owners Association.

The unemployment rate in Africa’s most industrialised economy has been above 20 percent for at least two decades, even though output expanded by five percent or more a year in the early 2000s.