South Africa reports record job losses

South Africa’s economy lost 2.2 million jobs in the second quarter of 2020, according to the government's statistics agency, which is the largest fall on record.

But because of a statistical quirk the country’s official unemployment rate has fallen to 23% - a substantial decrease from 30.1% seen in the first quarter.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) defines an unemployed person as someone who is actively looking for a job – and because of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, most people who lost their jobs during that time were unable to look for a new one.

A clearer picture of the unemployment rate comes from Stats SA's figure for the number of people who were not economically active between March and June – the strictest period of the lockdown.

That figure increased by 5.3 million people to 20.5 million.

South Africa’s lockdown – one of the strictest in the world – led to the largest economic contraction ever in the second quarter.