Three of South Africa’s nine provinces may soon have more people unemployed than working.
This is the calculation of BusinessTech following the release of South Africa’s latest employment levels, which are among the highest in the world.
StatsSA reported that the country’s official unemployment rate rose by 1 percentage point to 32.9% in the first quarter of this year. The expanded rate, which includes discouraged work-seekers, was up to 43.1%.
While South Africa officially has 8.2 million people out of work, the country now has nearly 17 million people of working age who are not economically active, StatsSA says.
Looking at the provincial totals, BusinessTech noted that North West province already has more jobless than workers – 56% are unemployed, according to the expanded definition.
It says two other provinces are nearing the 50% unemployment point – Mpumalanga, currently 49.3% and the Eastern Cape at 49%.
Increases in employment were recorded in three provinces – the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Free States. Jobless numbers rose in the other six provinces in the first quarter.
The Western Cape has to lowest official unemployment rate of 19.6%, and is the only province with an expanded unemployment rate below 25%, BusinessTech says.
