# The DA says the latest Quarterly Labour Force Review shows that serious economic reform is urgently required. The survey shows South Africa lost 345-thousand jobs in the first quarter of 2026, pushing the official unemployment rate up to 32.7-percent. Expanded unemployment climbed to 43.7-percent. DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis says economic reform has been too slow, too cautious, and too easily displaced by other political priorities. He says the country’s central national mission must be to get the economy growing and creating jobs.
DA says South Africa’s economic reforms are moving too slow to meaningfully create jobs