# zaref.dev South African Unemployment Rate

> zaref.dev South African Unemployment Rate is a paid API for AI agents from zaref.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-17).

Returns the latest official and expanded South African unemployment rates from Stats SA QLFS, with reference quarter, source URL, effective date, and freshness flag.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://zaref.dev/v1/unemployment?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-17
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/zaref-dev-south-african-unemployment-rate-ef563601
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_oMGuwsgZ9qUaX7NHc_73l

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability zaref-dev-south-african-unemployment-rate-ef563601
```

Example prompt: What is the current official and expanded unemployment rate in South Africa according to Stats SA, and which quarter does the data refer to?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need a single authoritative, cited JSON payload for South African unemployment rates (both official narrow and expanded definitions) without scraping Stats SA yourself. Ideal for apps, dashboards, or agents needing current QLFS figures with provenance and freshness metadata baked in.

## Known failure modes

- Data not yet refreshed after a new QLFS release — freshness flag will indicate stale
- HTTP 402 if payment header is missing or USDC balance is insufficient
- HTTP 500 if upstream Stats SA data is temporarily unavailable
- Rate-limiting or access errors if called too frequently

## How this service works

South African Unemployment rate (Latest Stats SA QLFS official and expanded unemployment rates, with reference quarter.) Clean cited JSON with official source URL, effective date and freshness flag.

## Output

A clean JSON object containing South Africa's latest official unemployment rate, expanded unemployment rate, the reference quarter, the effective date of the data, a freshness flag indicating whether the data is up to date, and a URL to the official Stats SA source.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "properties": {
   "type": "string"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "data": "current values with citations",
  "stale": false,
  "series": "unemployment",
  "source_url": "https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/P02111stQuarter2026.pdf",
  "effective_date": "2026-05-12"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/zaref-dev-south-african-unemployment-rate-ef563601/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from zaref.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/zaref.dev/llms.txt)