Breaking Barriers
Young South Africans earned their praise in the President’s State of the Nation Address with a record 88% matric pass rate in 2025. And although experts remain concerned about the distribution of these gains across subjects, the growing share of Bachelor’s passes, especially from no‑fee schools, signals that both performance and equity continue trending upward.
Breaking Barriers
South Africa’s formal sector is shedding jobs at a worrying rate. This is according to both the latest Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) and the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), which support the finding that there are 200,000 fewer individuals in formal employment than there were in the first quarter of 2023.
Breaking Barriers
This Women’s Month, we spotlight the economic power of inclusion. The fundamental freedom to work and earn is often frustratingly elusive for women. This inequity is reason enough to pay close attention to the data on women’s participation in the labour market, but there is also a compelling economic reason to do so: growing our labour market equitably benefits everyone.
Breaking Barriers
South Africa’s macroeconomic picture remains one of sluggish, jobless growth. In the first quarter of 2025, the economy expanded by a mere 0.1%, and while accelerating growth is a priority, evidence shows that this alone will not fix our youth employment crisis.
Breaking Barriers
The start of 2025 fixed all eyes on the matric results and the all-time high pass rate of 87.3%.
Breaking Barriers
As the QLFS is published this week, we must set it in the context of another recent publication from the national statistical office: the census.
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