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| - Official unemployment in South Africa dropped to 23.3 percent of the workforce between April and June, according to survey results published Tuesday, although the actual rate was nearly double that. The jobless rate, according to the official benchmark, fell by 6.8 percentage points from 30.1 percent in January-March, making it the lowest rate in 11 years, the country's statistics agency said. But the actual rate of unemployed rose to 42 percent of the workforce after 39.7 percent in the first quarter as the impact of coronavirus began to bite, according to a wider definition. The latter figures come from an expanded definition of unemployment -- people who employable but have stopped looking for work, Statistics South Africa said. The expanded definition of unemployment is different from that used to calculate the official unemployment rate, which is determined by the number of people actively seeking work. South Africa imposed a hard lockdown on March 27, since progressively eased, to help curb the spread of COVID-19, but at the cost of braking economic activity and pushing the country deeper into recession. The statistics agency cautioned that the "sharp fall in the (official) unemployment rate in quarter two is not a reflection of an improvement in the labour market but rather an effect of the national lockdown". The number of people with jobs fell by 2.2 million during the second quarter, the national statistics office said. South Africa's economy shrank by more than half in the second quarter, an unprecedented decline. sn/ri
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