The unemployment rate represents the number of unemployed persons expressed as apercentage of the labour force. The unemployment rate for a particular age/sexgroup is the number of unemployed in that group expressed as a percentage of thelabour force for that group.A person is unemployed if he or she desiresemployment but cannot find a job. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) is ahousehold-based sample survey conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).It collects data on the labour market activities of individuals aged 15 years orolder who live in South Africa. Starting in 2005, Stats SA undertook a majorrevision of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which was conducted twice per yearsince 2000. This revision resulted in changes to the survey methodology, thesurvey questionnaire, the frequency of data collection and data releases, andthe survey data capture and processing systems. The redesigned labour marketsurvey is the QLFS which is now the principal vehicle for disseminating labourmarket information on a quarterly basis.