The corresponding figures for September and March last year, which Stats SA provided earlier, were 30,5 and 29,4% respectively.
In the expanded definition of unemployment - including the so-called discouraged jobseekers - the rate stood at 42,1% in March 2003. Six months earlier it was 41.8 percent and a year earlier 40,9%.
The expanded definition includes those economically active South Africans between the ages of 15 and 65 who are willing and able to work, but have not tried to find employment four weeks prior to being surveyed.
Stats SA said it had not made a comparison of the results of the latest round of its Labour Force Survey (LFS) with those of previous rounds, because the former was based on Census 2001, and the latter on Census 1996.
It was benchmarking the previous LFS rounds to the Census 2001 results, a process expected to be completed by the end of this year, deputy director-general Dr Ros Hirschowitz told reporters.
"We do not expect massive changes".
She said Stats SA was rebasing on a continuous basis, as that was the nature of statistics.
"They should not change dramatically, not the proportions, in any case". – Sapa.
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