City getting back to work
Cape Town bucks national unemployment rate, showing second successive quarter decline
CAPE Town’s official unemployment rate declined for a second successive quarter to 21.1%, while the national unemployment rate increased to 27.5%.
Mayor Patricia de Lille said the City’s unemployment rate was 2.1 percentage points lower than what it was a year ago.
It was also the ninth consecutive quarter in which the City had shown positive employment growth, De Lille said.
The number of Capetonians in employment has increased by 61 000 to 1.6 million people.
“In addition, the quarterly Labour Force Survey 2018 for the third quarter, from July 1 to September 31, shows Cape Town has the lowest expanded unemployment rate (22,9%) of all the metros in the country.
“Cape Town’s growing employment is testament to the City’s efforts to create an enabling environment for businesses to invest and to create new jobs.
“Formal employment, which represents the bulk of employment in Cape Town, has increased again on both a quarter-to-quarter and year-on-year basis,” he said.
De Lille said the City had identified priority sectors to support through its catalytic sector programmes that enabled an increasing number of Capetonians to develop the required skills needed to secure employment.
“These sectors have shown the most potential to grow and develop Cape Town’s economy and include business process outsourcing craft and design, clothing and textiles, fashion, and the information communication and technology sector,” she said.
DA spokesperson on economic opportunities Beverley Schäfer said the Western Cape also remained the province with the lowest expanded unemployment rate in South Africa, at 23,7%.
The province’s official unemployment rate has dropped by 0.3% to 20.4%.
“The Western Cape’s closest competitor, Gauteng, has an expanded unemployment rate of 34.3%, a full 10.6 percentage points behind the Western Cape.
“This in the face of the devastating effects of a prolonged hydrological drought in our province. The expanded unemployment rate includes discouraged workers and economically inactive citizens. This means that workers living in the Western Cape are the least discouraged in South Africa, with the province being home to the lowest number of economically inactive citizens,” she said. |