Western Cape records lower unemployment

THE province said it has recorded the lowest expanded unemployment rate and the highest labour absorption rate in the country.

Yesterday, StatsSA released the quarterly labour force survey data, for the fourth quarter of 2018, showing that the Western Cape created 29 000 new jobs over the past year and 26 000 between October and December last year. This represents a year-on-year increase in employment of 1.2%.

The unemployment rate also declined in the province, and is below 20%, at 19.3%, leading to the lowest expanded unemployment rate in the country, at 23.1%.

“This data shows there are fewer unemployed people in the province, and opportunities for employment in the Western Cape,” Economic Opportunities MEC Beverley Schäfer said.

Sectors contributing to employment growth were agriculture, which saw an increase of 10.3% year-onyear, transport, which grew by 8.2% year-on-year and the finance sector, with year-on-year gains of 2.1%. Rural unemployment has declined to 15.7%, dropping 3.4% quarter-on-quarter.

“This is remarkable, given that we experienced one of the worst droughts on record in 2018. Our efforts to create jobs in the rural areas, through interventions like Project Khulisa, are clearly showing results,” Schäfer said.

Between the third quarter of 2009 and the fourth quarter of 2018, 508 000 jobs were created in the province – growth of 24.8% in job numbers.

“The Western Cape has created over 500 000 jobs since the third quarter of 2009 and 2.52 million people in this province have a job,” she said.

“As the Western Cape government, we are proud of projects like the Air Access initiative – supporting emerging farmers – and business interventions like the Red Tape Reduction Unit, which contributes to growth, attractiveness as an investment destination, and job creation.” |