Cape Town - The Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday, revealed that the Western Cape’s unemployment rate has dropped from 20,4% to 19,3% between the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2018.
This means that the provincial unemployment rate is once again below the 20% marker, a full 1,1% lower than the previous quarter, said Tertuis Simmers, Standing Committee Chairperson on Economic Opportunities, Tourism, and Agriculture.
"The Western Cape also remains the province with the lowest expanded unemployment rate in South Africa at 23,1%, a drop of 0,6%. The Western Cape’s closest competitor, Gauteng, has an expanded unemployment rate of 33,6%, a full 10,5 percentage points behind the Western Cape," Simmers said.
"The expanded unemployment rate includes discouraged workers and economically inactive citizens. This means that workers living in the Western Cape are the least discouraged in South Africa, with the province being home to the lowest number of economically inactive citizens.
"These economic gains, in the face of some of the Western Cape’s worst challenges such as the water and drought crisis, have demonstrated this government’s commitment to preserving jobs and protecting our economy in the interests of guaranteeing opportunities to the people of the Western Cape," added Simmers.