JOHANNESBURG, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The unemployment rate in South Africa reached a new high of 25.2 percent of its labor force in the first quarter this year, the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) announced on Monday.
The number of the unemployed was up 100,000 people from the last quarter in 2012, bringing the jobless to 4.6 million, said the Stats SA in its Quarterly Labor Force Survey.
The unemployment rate in the final quarter of 2012 was put at 24.9 percent.
The retail and wholesale trade sector has lost more than 60,000 jobs since the last quarter in 2012.
The new statistics showed South Africa's total population stands at 51 million.
The official definition of unemployment in South Africa means those people aged 15 to 64 having no jobs in the week preceding the interview, but looking for jobs and being available to have jobs.
The unemployment rate would rise to 36.7 percent in the first quarter this year compared to 35.9 percent in the fourth quarter last year if the expanded definition of unemployment was adopted.
It would be the highest unemployment rate since 2008.
One of the main drivers of the rising unemployment rate in South Africa in the first quarter this year was the negative impact by the western economic crisis.
Approximately one million jobs have been lost in South Africa since the western economic recession in 2008.
The Stats SA said the proportion of the employed people in the working age population fell from about 45 percent in the first quarter in 2008 to 41 percent in the first quarter this year.
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