{"id":23863,"date":"2026-02-17T09:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T07:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-ahead-of-unemployment-data\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:37","slug":"rand-weakens-ahead-of-unemployment-data","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-weakens-ahead-of-unemployment-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand weakens ahead of unemployment data"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The South African (SA) Rand weakened in early trade on Tuesday, ahead of the release of labour market data, with traders expecting the unemployment rate to have remained largely unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">Rand traded at 16.0375 against the Dollar, about 0.4% below Monday&#8217;s close.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">Domestic investors are awaiting the unemployment data to gauge the condition of the labour market of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">Lara Hodes, an economist at Investec, said unemployment will remain largely unchanged, perhaps easing marginally to 31.7% in Q4.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">The country&#8217;s official jobless rate currently stands at 31.9%, one of the highest globally.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">Nedbank economists expect the unemployment rate to hold close to 32% in the fourth quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">&#8220;Domestically oriented industries are likely to have benefited from consumer spending, easing logistical constraints and a more stable electricity supply,&#8221; Nedbank said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">&#8220;However, firms in export oriented sectors, may have adopted a wait and see approach, delaying capacity expansion in response to higher tariffs and weak global demand.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond traded flat in early deals, with the yield at 7.945%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span class=\"x_elementtoproof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13745,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23863","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"SA Rand weakened in early trade on Tuesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26705,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23863\/revisions\/26705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}