Eastern Cape Overview of the Labour Market
Sub Title :
Category : Statistics and data
Publish Date : 15 Nov 2018
The purpose of this publication is to analyse the latest developments in the Eastern Cape labour market. The analysis is extended to include employment and unemployment dynamics for the two metropolitan cities in the province. The data used in the report is drawn from Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). This issue covers the third quarter of 2018 (2018Q3).
Key Findings include:
• The national official unemployment rate increased by 0.3 of a percentage points to 27.5% in 2018Q3. The unemployment rate decreased in five of the nine provinces. The largest declines were recorded in Northern Cape (down by 1,9 percentage points), Mpumalanga (down by 0,7 of a percentage point), and Limpopo (down by 0,4 of a percentage point).
• The Eastern Cape unemployment rate increased by 1.4 percentage points to 35.6% in 2018Q3.
• The total number of unemployed people with tertiary education in South Africa is 504 432, 34% (171 844) of them are in the Gauteng province and 12% (60 210) in Eastern Cape.
• The South African youth unemployment rate was recorded at 39.0% in 2018Q3. Free State (48.6%) and Eastern Cape (47.3%) had the highest youth unemployed rate.
• The number of discouraged work-seekers in the Eastern Cape province declined by 47 000.
• A total of 13 000 jobs were lost in the Easter Cape; trade industry created 15 000 whilst manufacturing lost 17 000 jobs.
• Nelson Mandela Bay unemployment rate increased from 35.0% in 2018Q2 to 36.4% in 2018Q3. In total, 11 000 jobs were lost in the Metro.
• 2018Q3 unemployment rate in the Buffalo City declined by 1.7 percentage points due to the decline in the labour force.
