Central SA
Central SA loses 69,000 jobs in first quarter─── KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 09:45 Wed, 14 May 2025
A combined total of 69,000 jobs were lost in the Northern Cape and North West during the first quarter of 2025.
In the first Quarterly Labour Force Survey of 2025, six provinces recorded employment losses, including 57,000 in North West, 12,000 in the Northern Cape, 104,000 in KwaZulu-Natal, and 83,000 in the Eastern Cape.
The Free State is among the three provinces with employment gains, recording 4,000. The Western Cape created the most jobs (49,000), while 9,000 were created in Gauteng.
Statistician General Risenga Maluleke provided further insight into the national employment trends, revealing a steep decline the was a decrease of 291,000 in the number of employed persons to 16.8 million from 17.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, while there was an increase of 237,000 in the number of unemployed persons to 8.2 million.
This shift resulted in a total labour force decrease of 54,000 people, while the number of discouraged work-seekers rose by 7,000 (0.2%), and individuals not economically active due to other reasons surged by 177,000 (1.4%), bringing the total non-economically active population to 16.7 million.
The national unemployment rate now stands at 32.9%, up from 31.9% in the previous quarter. Maluleke noted that the expanded unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 1.2 percentage points to 43.1% when compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, which was 41.9%.
A sectoral breakdown revealed that the formal sector saw the sharpest decline with 245,000 job losses, while informal sector employment rose by 17,000. Some industries did post gains – transport (67,000), finance (60,000), and utilities (35,000).
They were offset by steep losses in trade (194,000), construction (119,000), private households (68,000), community and social services (45,000), and mining (35,000).
Youth unemployment remains a critical concern. Maluleke said the total number of unemployed youth increased by 151,000 to 4.8 million, while employed youth recorded a decrease of 153,000 to 5.7 million. This pushed the youth unemployment rate from 44.6% to 46.1% in the first quarter of 2025.
Meanwhile, BusinessTech reports Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape are on the verge of joining the North West in having more people unemployed than working. This would see over half of the working-age population in those provinces categorised as unemployed or having given up looking for work.
North West already carries this distinction with 56% of the population unemployed, according to the extended definition.
