In its quarterly labour force survey, which polls households, Statistics South Africa said this amounted to 5.151 million people without work, down slightly from 5.154 million in the previous three months.
It said the construction and mining sectors had added 135 000 and 19 000 jobs respectively in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2013, but manufacturing shed 38 000 while agriculture lost 54 000 jobs.
The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, was at 35.8% in the third quarter from 35.6% in the second.
SA has a working age population of 35,5m #StatsSA http://t.co/zrfQqsAqET pic.twitter.com/k1ByOcvLqY
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) October 30, 2014
Long-term #unemployment is higher among women (70,3%) than men (61,8%) #StatsSA http://t.co/SwMRj8r83p pic.twitter.com/jabJRGoCCO
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) October 30, 2014
In 2014, around 1,5m of 5,1m #unemployed were looking for work for more than 5 years #StatsSA http://t.co/zrfQqsAqET pic.twitter.com/qBKykOXvFB
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) October 30, 2014