80 000 jobs vanish as experts reject migrant blame

South Africa shed 80 000 jobs in the first three months of 2026, with the largest losses concentrated in community services and trade. Amid anti-immigrant rhetoric across the country, economists and migration experts say the numbers point to deeper structural failures rather than foreign nationals taking jobs from South Africans. 

Statistics South Africa’s latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) show that total employment in the formal non-agricultural sector fell from 10.548 million jobs in December 2025 to 10.468 million in March 2026. That represents a quarterly decline of 0.8%, while employment was down by 121 000 jobs compared with March last year. 

The QES measures employment in formal businesses and government entities. It excludes agriculture, private households, and much of the informal economy. It therefore provides a snapshot of trends in the formal job market rather than overall employment. 

Community services recorded the biggest quarterly decline, shedding 53 000 jobs. Trade followed, with 40 000 job losses. Smaller declines were recorded in transport and electricity. Manufacturing, business services, mining, and construction all reported modest increases. 

The figures arrive as several political parties and activist groups continue to argue that foreign nationals are taking employment opportunities from South Africans. However, the experts interviewed by the SA Jewish Report said the unemployment crisis stems overwhelmingly from weak economic growth, poor policy choices, and an environment that discourages investment. 

“It illustrates that the most pressing social expression of South Africa’s economic malaise, unemployment, remains severe and unaddressed,” said Terence Corrigan, project manager at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). “This is a problem that has grated the country for decades, and is consistent with low levels of investment and growth. For more jobs, we need more growth.” 

Corrigan said part of the quarterly decline reflected seasonal trends. Retailers, hotels, and restaurants often hire temporary workers over the festive season before reducing staff once demand falls in the new year. Looking beyond seasonal factors, he said South Africa had experienced persistently weak economic growth for more than a decade. 

“The big picture is that South Africa’s economy is not growing,” he said. “Investment as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product sits at around 15%. This is half the level of comparator economies. We are not creating the conditions that would create a demand for labour.” 

Sara Gon, a fellow at the IRR, also attributed the losses primarily to an economy struggling under heavy regulation and limited private sector growth. “I think the reasons for that are probably the reasons for most things, and that is that the economy is not operating well,” she said. 

“The economy is full of regulations and requirements and things that inhibit entrepreneurial activity.” She said government should focus on creating an environment where businesses can grow rather than attempting to generate employment directly. “The private sector will come up with things that government wouldn’t dream of as businesses,” she said. Companies create jobs only once they have established sustainable economic activity. 

The latest QES also found that gross earnings paid to employees declined by R43.4 billion during the quarter, falling from R1.079 trillion to R1.036 trillion. Basic salaries and wages decreased by R6.9 billion, although average monthly earnings increased slightly to R29 997. 

While the economic picture remains bleak, several experts warned that directing public anger at migrants risks obscuring the underlying causes of the unemployment crisis. Corrigan said migration might intensify competition in certain sectors, but it was not the principal driver of unemployment. 

“Migration might aggravate things in particular contexts, but the real problem is inadequate investment, a consequent failure of economic growth, a sub-standard skills development system, and a labour relations regime that disincentivises taking on workers.” 

Alana Pugh-Jones Baranov, country director of HIAS South Africa, said public debate around migration was too often driven by misinformation instead of evidence. 

“No one can deny that South Africans face many hardships, and our crushing unemployment rate is just one of the many challenges our country faces,” she said. “However, migrants are not the cause of these issues and blaming them instead of holding those in power accountable will not create solutions.” 

She said migrants, whether documented or undocumented, make up just 4.1% of South Africa’s population according to Census data. She also pointed to research showing that migrants contribute to employment rather than reduce it. 

Citing findings from Collective Voices for Health Access and the World Bank, Pugh-Jones Baranov said every migrant employed created about two jobs for South Africans through business activity. The Human Sciences Research Council had also found that many migrant entrepreneurs employ South Africans while creating businesses in sectors such as food, retail, clothing, repairs, and beauty. 

Benji Shulman, director of public policy at the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, said xenophobic tensions had developed against a backdrop of prolonged economic stagnation and weak governance. South Africa had experienced a decade of little or no economic growth, pushing unemployment from the low twenties into the low thirties. “The economy hasn’t been working properly.” 

He said migration to South Africa had also been shaped by instability elsewhere in the region, particularly Zimbabwe, where political repression and economic collapse had driven many skilled people to seek opportunities in South Africa. At the same time, he said, state institutions had struggled to cope. 

Entities such as the Department of Home Affairs had become overburdened, while corruption and administrative failures made it difficult to distinguish between asylum seekers, labour migrants, and people entering the country illegally. 

Shulman said hostility towards migrants formed part of a broader pattern of suspicion directed at several minority communities. South Africa’s historical isolation from much of the continent had also contributed to limited understanding of neighbouring countries and their people, he told the SA Jewish Report. 

Corrigan similarly warned that blaming migrants risked fuelling social conflict while distracting from the reforms needed to grow the economy. “It encourages animosity in an already angry society,” he said. “Secondly, it misdirects attention and makes the search for solutions more difficult.” 

Both Corrigan and Gon argued that sustainable job creation depended on creating conditions that encouraged businesses to invest, expand, and hire more workers. Corrigan said reforms should make it easier and less costly to employ workers while improving the investment climate through stronger property rights, less crime, and a better education system. Gon said businesses, not government, ultimately create lasting employment because they respond to genuine demand in the economy. 

Although the latest figures paint a bleak picture, Corrigan said South Africa’s unemployment crisis was not inevitable. Meaningful improvements remained possible if policymakers were prepared to embrace more fundamental economic reforms. “We need to do things differently,” he said. “The figures underline the severity of South Africa’s problems, but they also highlight the resilience of its people.”