As South Africans get ready to head to the polls on 1 November for the local government elections, much of the focus will be on the country’s record-high unemployment rate.<\/p>\n
Statistics South Africa’slatest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QFLS) for Q2 2021, published at the end of August, shows the country’s unemployment rate now sits at 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n
The expanded definition of unemployment – which includes discouraged job seekers – shows that the country’s actual unemployment rate is closer to 44.4%.<\/p>\n
However, this national data is not wholly representative of South Africa’s unemployment crisis, with parts of the country showing unemployment rates significantly above and below this average.<\/p>\n
While the Eastern Cape’s provincial unemployment rate sits at 47.1%, the province’s unemployment rate in non-metro areas sits at 53%. Similar trends are seen in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, where unemployment is four to five percentage points higher outside of the cities.<\/p>\n
By comparison, unemployment in Gauteng and the Western Cape’s non-metro areas is lower than in the cities – likely due to semigration, which drives job seekers from other parts of the country into major cities.<\/p>\n
The below tables outline the official unemployment rate across South Africa’s major metropoles for Q2 2021 (April-June). This includes the number of employed compared to the total population – known as the employment ‘absorption’ rate.<\/p>\n The table also includes the city’s ‘labour force participation rate’, which is the proportion of the working-age population that is employed.<\/p>\n Mangaung<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Unemployment-1.png\")
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