South Africa's unemployment rate fell to 31.9% in the third quarter of this year from 32.6% in the second quarter, statistics agency data showed on Tuesday.

Statistics South Africa said the number of unemployed people was 7.849 million in the third quarter from 7.921 million in the second quarter.

Under an expanded definition of unemployment that includes people discouraged from seeking work, 41.2% of the labour force was jobless in July-September compared with 42.1% in April-June.

 

(Reporting by Kopano Gumbi Additional reporting by Tannur Anders Editing by Alexander Winning)