On Tuesday the 15th of August 2023, Stats SA released results from the second Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the period starting from 1 April to the end of June 2023.

The second quarter labour statistics show that the labour force participation rate for women stood at 54.3% compared with 64.9% for men which sees a staggering gap of 10,6 percentage points.

The QLFS is a household-based sample survey that collects data on the labour market activities of South Africans between the ages of 15 and 64 years old.

As the country observes Women’s Month, the latest figures from Stats SA show there is still a huge gender disparity between men and women when it comes to participation in the labour force.

Economist Professor Bonke Dumisa said the need to be institutional changes within the workforce if the gap between men and women will ever be closed.

"You still have many environments where females find it difficult to access those workplaces and they can not run away from that one," Dumisani added.

Figures from Stats SA also show that women are more likely to work in low-paying jobs and in vulnerable conditions compared to their male counterparts.

Meanwhile the South Africa’s official unemployment rate has decreased by 0,3 of a percentage point compared to the previous quarter, with the latest number now at 32.6%.

The number of employed people in the country currently stands at 16.3 million, which is almost at the pre-COVID levels where the figure stood at 16.4 million.