South Africa's unemployment rate increased to 23.5% this month, with 4.18 million people out of work. Economists expect the numbers to worsen further, with manufacturing and mining sectors being hit particularly hard. The African National Congress, the ruling party in South Africa, has promised to create job opportunities, but the country's economy contracted for the first time in more than 10 years. The unemployment rate is 31.2% if those who have recently given up on looking for jobs are included in the measure.
See "South Africa?s Unemployment Rate Increases to 23.5%", Nasreen Seria and Mike Cohen, Bloomberg News, May 4, 2009