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Statistics South Africa will likely publish another bleak quarterly labour force survey for the second quarter of the year after unemployment surged more than expected in the first quarter in what Cosatu called a ticking time bomb.The overall jobless rate surged to 32.7% in the first three months of the year from 31.4% in the final quarter of 2025, with unemployment among people aged 15 to 34 higher at 45.8%.The latest Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research confidence index shows local businesses came under significant pressure in the second quarter, with the operating environment deteriorating as supply constraints in the Strait of Hormuz due to the Middle East conflict drove the domestic cost of fuel sharply higher. This would have been a dampener for employment during the three months.“[The second quarter] official unemployment reading is likely to have remained elevated at 32.9%,” Investec economist Lara Hodes predicted.“The war in the Middle East has increased uncertainty, weighing on confidence levels and, accordingly, hiring decisions, tensions which have pushed up oil prices.”Stats SA’s latest manufacturing production report later on Tuesday will likely point to continued stress for the sector in June after output contracted 4.3% year-on-year in May following a 2.9% decline in April.The oil price shock and US tariffs will probably have compounded existing structural constraints and created a more challenging operating environment during the month, Nedbank said in its weekly economic monitor.Also on Tuesday, the Bank for International Settlements will publish a report entitled “Africa’s public debt amid global headwinds: balancing resilience and vulnerabilities”. A separate report in June illustrated how debt challenges facing African governments are weighing on investor and funder appetite for the continent’s entrepreneurs, trapping them in a vicious cycle of capital scarcity.On the same day, transport minister Barbara Creecy will meet with fresh produce industry stakeholders at the port of Cape Town and give them an update on efforts to strengthen Transnet’s role in enabling the sector and its readiness for the upcoming deciduous fruit season.On Thursday, Stats SA will publish mining production numbers for June, which are likely to indicate another industry in distress as higher fuel prices and geopolitical uncertainty stemming from the US-Iran war have made it more expensive to run machinery and get ore out of ports.Mining output in May was 5.4% lower than it was a year ago and dropped 5.2% on a monthly basis, its biggest dip since November 2025.Thursday will also see South African importers, distributors, retailers, wholesalers and hospitality buyers meet a delegation of export-ready Thai companies at the Thailand–South Africa business matching forum in Johannesburg.Elsewhere that day, the University of South Africa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership, in partnership with the department of electricity and energy and power utility Eskom, will hold a forum on how to strengthen the country’s electricity landscape.Business Day
