South Africa jobless rate rose in the third quarter to hit a record high, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Thursday.
The jobless rate rose to 30.8 percent in the third quarter from 23.3 percent in the second quarters. Economists had forecast a rate of 33.4 percent.
The latest unemployment rate was the highest since the series began in 2008, the agency said.
In the same quarter previous year, the unemployment rate was 29.1 percent.
The number of unemployed persons increased by 2.20 million persons to 6.53 million in the third quarter from 4.29 million in the previous quarter. Economists had forecast 4.60 million unemployed.
The number of employed persons fell by 1.7 million to 14.69 million in the September quarter from a year ago.
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