Ethekwini has recorded the lowest unemployment rate of any South African metro, taking the spot from Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) revealed that Ethekwini had an unemployment rate of 21.2%, a 5.6-percentage-point improvement year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The KwaZulu-Natal metro is also the only metropolitan area to see its unemployment rate decrease both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cape Town saw an unemployment rate of 21.9% in the latest QLFS, a 0.5% quarter-on-quarter increase for the metro, which previously held the lowest unemployment rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cape Town has consistently exceeded the national unemployment rate, ranging from 20% to 24% over the last three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cape Town’s local government has often attributed this low unemployment rate to strong infrastructure investment programmes, aimed at creating local employment and improving the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The national unemployment rate has been above 30% for that period, and reached 33.6% in the latest QLFS report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Cape Town has maintained low unemployment figures over the last three years, the 0.5% increase in the last quarter was enough to see it lose its status as the metro with the lowest unemployment rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethekwini has also regularly outperformed the national unemployment average and saw the sharpest year-on-year decrease of any South African metro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethekwini mayor Cyril Xaba said that the city’s strong performance in reducing unemployment numbers was a reflection of the work done to stabilise its investment environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These figures show that the fundamentals we have been working on, which include infrastructure, investment facilitation and support for the industrial and tourism sectors, are translating into jobs for our residents,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the good statistics, he said the city still considers unemployment one of the largest challenges facing the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“More than 340,000 people in this city are still looking for work, and our absorption rate must go higher. But the direction of travel is correct, and we intend to sustain it,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Metro<\/strong><\/td>| 2026 Q1 unemployment rate<\/strong><\/td> | 2026 Q2 unemployment rate<\/strong><\/td> | Percentage point change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> | Ethekwini<\/strong><\/td> | 22.3%<\/td> | 21.2%<\/td> | \u20131.1<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Cape Town<\/strong><\/td> | 21.4%<\/td> | 21.9%<\/td> | +0.5<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Buffalo City<\/strong><\/td> | 28.7%<\/td> | 30.5%<\/td> | +1.8<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Mangaung<\/strong><\/td> | 30.3%<\/td> | 33.0%<\/td> | +2.7<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Nelson Mandela Bay<\/strong><\/td> | 29.8%<\/td> | 33.1%<\/td> | +3.3<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Tshwane<\/strong><\/td> | 36.8%<\/td> | 34.2%<\/td> | \u20132.6<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Ekurhuleni<\/strong><\/td> | 32.4%<\/td> | 34.6%<\/td> | +2.2<\/mark><\/td><\/tr> | Johannesburg<\/strong><\/td> | 34.7%<\/td> | 35.9%<\/td> | +1.2<\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n | Unemployment is rising<\/h2>\n\n\n\nAcross South Africa’s eight metros, only two saw their unemployment rates decrease from the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with Ethekwini, Tshwane had a 2.6% drop in its unemployment rate, but the city still has the sixth-highest rate of South Africa’s metros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nelson Mandela Bay, which includes Gqeberha, saw the largest rise in unemployment, up 3.3% quarter-on-quarter and 6.7% year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All three of Gauteng’s metropolitan areas ranked among South Africa’s metros with the highest unemployment rates, with Johannesburg having the highest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The country’s economic hub saw its unemployment rate rise by 1.2 percentage points to 35.9%, exceeding South Africa’s average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ekurhuleni also had a higher-than-average unemployment rate, slightly below that of its neighbour, Johannesburg, at 34.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In total, six of South Africa’s eight metropolitan areas saw an increase in unemployment rates, largely mirroring the country’s overall data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The national unemployment rate reached 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026, a 0.9% increase from the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a worrying trend for South Africa, which already has an unemployment rate far higher than the global average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The International Labour Organisation estimates that the global unemployment rate is 4.9%, painting a worrying picture for South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unemployment crisis comes as South Africa has struggled with economic growth in recent years, with GDP growth at 1.1% in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ethekwini has surpassed Cape Town to become the metro with the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":826717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2087846891060887773","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2174864716667261","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17865708963645544","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[2279,22808,1996,7541,16476],"class_list":["post-870119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-cape-town","tag-ethekwini","tag-johannesburg","tag-nelson-mandela-bay","tag-qlfs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870119","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870119"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870158,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870119\/revisions\/870158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |