Four tables that show South Africa’s employment problem in each province
Data compiled by StatsSA earlier this month revealed that South Africa’s jobless rate is now at a 14-year high, at a time when the country is in a technical recession.
The unemployment rate increased to 27.7% in the first quarter of 2017 from 26.5% in the previous three months, StatsSA said.
Unemployment according to the expanded definition, which includes people who have given up looking for employment, also climbed to 36.4% from 35.6%, the statistics office said.
Breaking its data down into the nine provinces, StatsSA noted that the number of employed persons increased in seven provinces between Q4:2016 and Q1:2017.
The largest employment gains were observed in Gauteng (81,000), Mpumalanga (62,000) and Western Cape (21,000), while Limpopo and Eastern Cape recorded employment declines of 56,000 and 5,000, respectively over this period.
Compared to Q1:2016, largest increases in employment were observed in five of the nine provinces, with Gauteng (298 000), Eastern Cape (76 000) and Mpumalanga (57 000) recording the highest employment gains.
During the same period, employment losses were recorded in Free State (24,000) Northern Cape (14,000).
Employment by province
Between Q4: 2016 and Q1:2017, employment levels increased in all metropolitan municipalities, with the exception of Nelson Mandela Bay, City of Johannesburg and Mangaung metros, where the number of employed persons declined by 7,000, 3,000 and 2,000 respectively, StatsSA said.
Ekurhuleni and City of Cape Town recorded the highest gains in employment at 32,000 and 29,000, respectively.
Compared to the same period last year, employment decreases were recorded in two metropolitan municipalities, namely Mangaung (18,000) and in City of Cape Town (5,000).
Employment by province and municipality
The increase in unemployment rate was recorded in seven of the nine provinces, with the highest increase recorded in Eastern Cape (3.8 percentage points), Limpopo (2.3 percentage points) and KwaZulu-Natal (1.9 percentage points).
Northern Cape was the only province that recorded a decrease in the official unemployment rate (1.3 percentage points).
Unemployment rate by province
In the first quarter of 2017, quarterly increases in the official unemployment rate were observed in four of the eight metropolitan municipalities, with the highest increase being recorded in City of Tshwane.
Compared to Q1: 2016, Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay recorded the largest decreases in the official unemployment rate, the data found.
Unemployment rate by metropolitan municipality
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