On Tuesday the latest labour survey was released by StatsSA. The numbers are bad. The number of people out of work has risen above seven million for the first time ever. The economy is creating jobs but the number of job-seekers is rising at a faster rate. By PAUL BERKOWITZ.

The quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) for the second quarter of 2013 was released on Tuesday. In the months of April to June this year the official unemployment rate rose to 25.6%, while the broader rate of unemployment rose to 36.8%.

The graph below shows the trend in the two rates over the last five and half years. . Both measures of unemployment are just a tenth of a percentage point below their records, set in the second quarter of 2011.

Over the last two and a half years the official rate of unemployment has averaged over 25%. Although the economy added 100 000 jobs for the quarter, this was not enough to absorb all of the new entrants into the labour market. The total number of employed people rose to 2008 levels of some 13.7-million but the numbers of unemployed and discouraged work-seekers rose to record levels.

The number...