Eastern Cape remains with highest unemployment rate in SA

JOHANNESBURG - Eastern Cape remains with the highest unemployment rate among all nine provinces in the country.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey on Tuesday, which placed North West in the second spot.

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Eastern Cape and North West are the only two provinces with an official unemployment rate above 40%, surpassing the national figure, which now sits at 32.9%.

“Provinces that recorded increases in employment were KwaZulu-Natal with 35,000, Gauteng, 26,000, and Northern Cape, 4,000,” said Stats SA's director of labour statistics, Dihlolelo Phoshoko.

“Those that recorded decreases in employment were Western Cape, 17,000, followed by North West, 13,000, Mpumalanga, 8,000, Eastern Cape, 4,000, and Limpopo, 3,000, while Free State remained unchanged.”