Employment up by 330 000 and unemployment down by 129 000 in the Western Cape

I am elated that employment statistics in the Western Cape increased by 330 000 year-on-year, representing an increase of 14.7%.

In addition, the Western Cape recorded the largest employment increase in the country quarter-on-quarter, with an additional 167 000 employed persons in our province.

This is according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released by Statistics South Africa today.

It is further good news that the unemployment rates, both on the official and expanded definitions, decreased by 2 percentage points and 2.7 percentage points respectively, quarter-on-quarter and by 5.5 percentage points and 3.6 percentage points respectively year-on-year.

This represents a decrease in the number of unemployed people by 129 000 on the official definition, and by 35 000 on the expanded definition, year-on-year.

To build on this momentum and to ensure that we continue to enable the creation of more job opportunities in the Western Cape, the Provincial Government is in the final stages of completing our new ‘Growth for Jobs’ Strategy.

The Strategy envisages a provincial economy that is sustainable, resilient, diverse, inclusive, and thriving. To fully realise this, the Strategy aims to achieves break-out economic growth by enabling the private sector, ultimately generating confidence, hope and prosperity for all.

While we do face significant challenges nationally, including the debilitating energy crisis and the recent grey listing by the Financial Action Task Force, which may increase the cost of doing business with South Africa and act as a disincentive for investment, the Western Cape Government will continue to work to remove obstacles to growth and to create the right conditions for the private sector, businesses big and small, to thrive.