Labor Force Participation / South Africa
South Africa Labor Force Participation
South Africa labor force participation data with historical trend, latest available year, ranking, source notes and country comparison. Latest value: 55.58%.
COUNTRY: South Africa
UNIT: percent of GDP
SOURCE: World Bank / public data sources
UPDATED: 2026-09-07 05:10:50
GM ECONOMY RATING
South Africa · Economic Stability Rating
Composite rating based on inflation, growth, debt, unemployment and current account.
BB
58 / 100
Moderate stability
Fiscal stability
9.0 / 25
Macroeconomic stability
8.9 / 20
External stability
9.0 / 15
Financial robustness
13.0 / 15
Structural stability
15.0 / 15
Future capacity
4.0 / 10
Demographic capacity
2.0 / 5
Method: GM Economy multi-pillar stability model with structural and financial robustness adjustment. Coverage: 100% of weighted inputs available.
Time range:
Selected year: · Value:
South Africa · labor force participation data as percent of GDP.
Latest
55.58%
Previous
55.57%
Range avg.
54.27%
Rank
77
Countries by labor force participation
full rankingGM ECONOMY
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Countries, indicators and comparisons
CountrySouth Africa
IndicatorLabor Force Participation
55.58%2025 · Rank 77
Chart range
All indicators
Prices & Inflation3
Growth & Output9
Public Finance8
Labor Market6
External Sector5
Monetary & Financial7
Population & Society7
Energy & Environment2
Interpretation
South Africa recorded 55.58% for Labor Force Participation in 2025, the latest available observation in this dataset.
The value increased from 55.57% in 2024; the absolute change was 0.01 percentage points.
The latest observation is above the average of the last 10 available observations (54.27%).
Within the last 10 available observations, the range runs from 50.55% in 2020 to 55.58% in 2025.
Comparison
Related indicators
UnemploymentSL.UEM.TOTL.ZS
Youth UnemploymentSL.UEM.1524.ZS
Employment RateSL.EMP.TOTL.SP.ZS
Labor Force TotalSL.TLF.TOTL.IN
Vulnerable EmploymentSL.EMP.VULN.ZS