{"id":843850,"date":"2025-11-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=843850"},"modified":"2025-11-21T15:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:49:38","slug":"the-only-province-in-south-africa-where-unemployment-is-lower-than-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/843850\/the-only-province-in-south-africa-where-unemployment-is-lower-than-20\/","title":{"rendered":"The only province in South Africa where unemployment is lower than 20%"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s overall unemployment rate remains above 30%, but the Western Cape has just seen its unemployment rate drop below 20%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) showed that the unemployment rate dropped to 31.9% in Q3 2025, down from 33.2% in the prior quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This marks a 1.3 percentage point improvement, meaning roughly 248,000 more people found jobs, bringing the total number of employed South Africans to 17.1 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape, on the other hand, saw its unemployment rate drop to 19.7% in Q3 2025 from 21.1% in Q2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This remains the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa, with the latest data showing that the Western Cape quarter-on-quarter added 70,000 jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the result of the hard work this government undertakes in partnership with businesses and companies in the Western Cape,\u201d said Western Cape Premier Alan Winde. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winde added that the figures are especially encouraging as the province was able to sign six major investment declarations for the province, worth R50 billion at the start of November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This investment is estimated to create an additional 45,000 jobs in the Western Cape over the next several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provincial Minister of Tourism Ivan Meyer added that the latest data is encouraging, as it takes the province closer to its goal of 600,000 new jobs by 2035. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will intensify efforts to attract and support investment into critical sectors of the provincial economy, including tourism, manufacturing, agribusiness, and services,\u201d added Winde. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape\u2019s dominance in employment figures is clear, with Limpopo in second place at 29.8%, followed by the Northern Cape and KZN at 31.2% and 31.7%, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provinces where more people are unemployed <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Western Cape Premier Alan Winde <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers who have stopped looking for employment, does rise to 25.7% for the Western Cape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is still far better than other provinces in the country, with Gauteng the next best performer at 39.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation is especially dire in the Eastern Cape and North West, with the former the only province to record an increase in unemployment in Q3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the new expanded definition, the Eastern Cape\u2019s unemployment rate stands at 50.2%, meaning that more people are unemployed than employed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having a lower actual unemployment figure, the North West is in an even worse position, with an expanded unemployment rate of 52.5%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the North West and Eastern Cape remain the worst provinces for employment in the country, the overall figures still do not provide for pretty reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions of South Africans remain locked out of the job market, with many stuck in a cycle of poverty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the latest employment figures were a step in the right direction, more will be needed to ensure economic growth in the country, which is set to grow at around 1% in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering that South Africa\u2019s population grows at around 1.5% per year, 2025 is expected to see another decline in GDP per capita, indicating that the population as a whole is becoming poorer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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South Africa\u2019s overall unemployment rate remains above 30%, but one province has just seen its unemployment rate drop below 20%.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":819382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[19419],"class_list":["post-843850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-quarterly-labour-force-survey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843850"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843891,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843850\/revisions\/843891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}