The standard unemployment rate in South Africa is calculated using only people actively seeking work. A more interesting picture comes from the employment-to-population ratio (aka the labour absorption rate), which looks at how many working-age adults have a job.

Of every 100 adults who have a degree, 78 are employed, 11 are unemployed and seeking work and 11 are outside the labour force (ie, they aren’t available to work or they aren’t looking for a job), according to data from the 2026 Q1 Quarterly Labour Force Survey published by Statistics South Africa. For diploma and certificate holders, the picture is 64 employed, 18 unemployed, and 18 outside the labour force. The further down the education ladder, the smaller the employed share and the larger the group that is considered to be outside the labour force.

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