The MEC of Finance and Economic Opportunities Mireille Wenger says 46 000 jobs were created in the Western Cape over the last quarter.

This is an increase from the 37 000 jobs created in the previous quarter-on-quarter reporting period.

Overall, the Western Cape maintains the lowest expanded unemployment rate in South Africa, with 87 000 jobs created year on year.

According to StatSA, the biggest contributors to these jobs’ figures were:

• Community and social services, which increased by 75 400 jobs year-on-year, and 70 300 jobs quarter-on-quarter.
• Finance, which increased by 65 600 jobs year-on-year, and 85 600 jobs quarter-on-quarter.
• And trade, which increased by 61 900 jobs year-on-year, and 72 500 jobs quarter-on-quarter.
• Over this period, the Western Cape recorded a decrease in people considered as “not economically active” – people who are not counted in the calculation of the employment rate.

This means that more people are looking for jobs and participating in the labour force in the Western Cape. This growing labour force also in part accounts for the increase in the expanded unemployment rate from 29% to 31.3% despite the addition of 46 000 new jobs in the province.

Wenger says while there are some promising signs, it is clear more needs to be done to match the increasing demand in the Western Cape.

Creating jobs, through rapid economic growth, is a top priority for the Western Cape Government as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and push forward to enable the private sector to grow and succeed.

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South Africa’s #unemployment rate decreased by 0,6 of a percentage point to 33,9% in Q2:2022 compared to Q1:2022.#StatsSA pic.twitter.com/3Exfl2X7qW

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 23, 2022

Meanwhile, Chief Economist at Econometrix Dr Azar Jammine, says while the national unemployment rate showed a slight reduction in the second quarter of 2022, there’s concern that jobs were actually lost in manufacturing and transport services.

Jammine says the jobs that were created could be a reflection of the country recovering from the lockdown.

The unemployment rate declined to 33.9% in the April to June quarter.

The total number of persons employed was 15.6 million in the second quarter, while the number of unemployed persons reached 8 million.

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