# South Africa Employment

South Africa Employment was down 0.4% year on year in Q2 2026, compared with −0.2% in Q1 2026.
The level stood at 16,739 thousands.
That is the lowest reading since Q1 2022.
Among the 14 economies Makrognosis covers on this measure, it is the 2nd lowest.
Over the past ten years it has ranged from −13.3% (Q2 2020) to 10.4% (Q3 2022), averaging 0.8%.

- Source agency: South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Web API
- Makrognosis code: `ZA.EMP.Q.NSA`
- Frequency: quarterly
- Units: thousands
- Coverage: 2008-03-31 to 2026-06-30 (74 observations)
- Page: https://makrognosis.robomacro.com/data/south-africa/employment

## Recent data

| Period | Value | Y/Y % |
|---|---:|---:|
| Q2 2026 | 16,739 thousands | −0.4 |
| Q1 2026 | 16,754 thousands | −0.2 |
| Q4 2025 | 17,099 thousands | 0.1 |
| Q3 2025 | 17,055 thousands | 0.6 |
| Q2 2025 | 16,807 thousands | 0.9 |
| Q1 2025 | 16,787 thousands | 0.3 |
| Q4 2024 | 17,078 thousands | 2.1 |
| Q3 2024 | 16,946 thousands | 1.2 |
| Q2 2024 | 16,652 thousands | 1.9 |
| Q1 2024 | 16,745 thousands | 3.4 |
| Q4 2023 | 16,723 thousands | 4.9 |
| Q3 2023 | 16,745 thousands | 6.2 |
| Q2 2023 | 16,346 thousands | 5.0 |
| Q1 2023 | 16,192 thousands | 8.6 |
| Q4 2022 | 15,934 thousands | 9.6 |
| Q3 2022 | 15,765 thousands | 10.4 |
| Q2 2022 | 15,562 thousands | 4.2 |
| Q1 2022 | 14,914 thousands | −0.5 |
| Q4 2021 | 14,544 thousands | −3.2 |
| Q3 2021 | 14,282 thousands | −2.8 |
| Q2 2021 | 14,942 thousands | 5.6 |
| Q1 2021 | 14,995 thousands | −8.5 |
| Q4 2020 | 15,024 thousands | −8.5 |
| Q3 2020 | 14,691 thousands | −10.3 |

## API

```
curl -H "X-API-Key: $MAKROGNOSIS_KEY" \
  "https://makrognosis.robomacro.com/v1/series/ZA.EMP.Q.NSA"

# Python
import requests
r = requests.get("https://makrognosis.robomacro.com/v1/series/ZA.EMP.Q.NSA",
                 headers={"X-API-Key": KEY})
obs = r.json()["observations"]
```