South Africa wants 3 percent growth and 1 million jobs but the latest unemployment figures tell a different story

Confidence must lead to investment. Investment must lead to production. Production must lead to jobs. - President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Government-Business Partnership has launched its third phase, with an ambition of lifting economic growth above 3% and contributing towards one million additional jobs by 2030, as South Africa’s unemployment rate remains above 33%.

The partnership was established in 2023 and has already gone through two phases focused on stabilising the economy and implementing structural reforms. President Cyril Ramaphosa said Phase Three must now turn that progress into faster growth, investment and employment.

“Phase One was about stabilisation. Phase Two was about reform. Phase Three must be about growth,” Ramaphosa said at the launch in Johannesburg on Thursday.

But the economic challenge that prompted the partnership remains substantial.

South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased to 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, from 32.7% in the first quarter. The number of unemployed people increased by 345,000 to 8.5 million, while employment fell by 16,000.

The latest labour-market figures come as the partnership acknowledges that growth remains below the level required to reduce unemployment on a sustained basis.

Ramaphosa said the immediate objective of Phase Three was to lift economic growth above 3%, although he stressed that this should be regarded as a threshold rather than an end goal.

“Growth of 3% cannot be the summit of our ambition,” he said. “It is a necessary threshold from which we must advance towards higher, sustained and more inclusive growth.”

Phase Two also targeted growth of 3% , with the aim of creating one million jobs. The economy grew by 1.1% in 2025, according to the partnership, well below the targeted rate.

The partnership’s first two phases focused on energy, transport and logistics, crime and corruption, and youth employment. The Presidency says the work contributed to improvements including more than a year without load shedding, improved rail freight and port performance, and South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list.

Ramaphosa said the progress had created a foundation for the next phase, but acknowledged that the reforms had not yet translated into sufficient employment.

“For the millions of South Africans who cannot find work, economic recovery remains an abstract idea,” Ramaphosa said. “For a young person who has never held a job, progress must mean an opportunity to work.”

Phase Three will retain the existing focus on energy, transport and logistics, crime and corruption, and youth employment, while adding mining, tourism, infrastructure, and agriculture and agro-processing as growth drivers.