# South Africa Unemployment Rate

South Africa Unemployment Rate was 33.7% in Q3 2026, up 0.1 percentage points from Q2 2026 and up 1.8 percentage points from a year earlier.
That is the highest reading since Q2 2022.
Among the 53 economies Makrognosis covers on this measure, it is the highest.
Over the past ten years it has ranged from 23.3% (Q2 2020) to 35.3% (Q4 2021), averaging 30.8%.

- Source agency: South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Web API
- Makrognosis code: `ZA.UNEMP.Q.NSA`
- Frequency: quarterly
- Units: %
- Coverage: 1996-03-31 to 2026-09-30 (123 observations)
- Page: https://makrognosis.robomacro.com/data/south-africa/unemployment-rate

## Recent data

| Period | Value |
|---|---:|
| Q3 2026 | 33.7% |
| Q2 2026 | 33.6% |
| Q1 2026 | 32.7% |
| Q4 2025 | 31.4% |
| Q3 2025 | 31.9% |
| Q2 2025 | 33.2% |
| Q1 2025 | 32.9% |
| Q4 2024 | 31.9% |
| Q3 2024 | 32.1% |
| Q2 2024 | 33.5% |
| Q1 2024 | 32.9% |
| Q4 2023 | 32.1% |
| Q3 2023 | 31.9% |
| Q2 2023 | 32.6% |
| Q1 2023 | 32.9% |
| Q4 2022 | 32.7% |
| Q3 2022 | 32.9% |
| Q2 2022 | 33.9% |
| Q1 2022 | 34.5% |
| Q4 2021 | 35.3% |
| Q3 2021 | 34.9% |
| Q2 2021 | 34.4% |
| Q1 2021 | 32.6% |
| Q4 2020 | 32.5% |

## API

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

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