PRETORIA - South Africa's official unemployment rate fell to 32.9% in the third quarter of 2022 from 33.9% in the second quarter, the statistics agency said on Tuesday.

Statistics South Africa said the number of unemployed people totalled 7.725 million people in the July-September period, compared with 7.994 million people in the previous three months.

According to an expanded definition of unemployment that includes those discouraged from seeking work, 43.1% were without work in the third quarter, from 44.1% in the second quarter.

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nation's International Labour Organisation.

The country recorded an unemployment rate of 35.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021, the highest since the quarterly labour force survey began in 2008.

(Reporting by Kopano Gumbi Editing by Alexander Winning)