PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa's official jobless rate ticked up slightly to 25.3 percent of the labour force in the second quarter of 2010, from 25.2 percent in the first quarter, a report showed on Tuesday.

In its latest quarterly Labour Force Survey, Statistics South Africa said the total number of unemployed people increased slightly to 4.312 million in the three months to June from 4.31 million in the previous quarter.

The government has singled out unemployment as a major challenge for Africa's biggest economy, after nearly 1 million jobs were lost last year in the country's first recession in nearly two decades.

The survey showed 61,000 jobs were lost in the second quarter compared to 171,000 in the first quarter.

"There has been a decline in the rate at which jobs were lost compared to the previous quarter, as well as if you compare to what happened at the same time last year," said Stats SA labour data manager Yandiswa Mpetsheni.

An expanded measure of unemployment that includes people who have stopped looking for work also rose to 35.9 percent from 35.4 percent, Stats SA said.

Jobs were gained in finance, trade, mining, utilities, community and social services but were lost in private households, transport, construction, manufacturing and agriculture, Stats SA added.

Kefiloe Masiteng, Stats SA deputy director general for population and social statistics, said it was too early to tell what impact the month-long soccer World Cup that ended in mid-July had had on employment, although initial estimates were of 115,000 jobs created in the informal sector.

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