City’s employment growth shows gradual upward trend

While the latest EPIC report shows an increasing employment growth rate for Cape Town, the City is still doing all it can to make progress possible for residents by creating opportunities.

The increase in employment resulted in Cape Town’s strict unemployment rate decreasing by 0,9 percentage points to 22,6% from quarter one of 2015. Year-on-year, this rate has decreased by 2,3 percentage points. Our strict unemployment rate is now 2,4 percentage points lower than the national average (strict unemployment refers to unemployed individuals in the 15 to 64-year age group who are actively looking for work). 

The city’s broad unemployment rate is only 1,3% higher than our strict rate and a noteworthy 11% lower than South Africa’s expanded rate of unemployment (broad or expanded unemployment includes individuals who are classified as discouraged or non-searching).

We are pleased with this positive trend, which shows that Cape Town has far fewer discouraged work seekers than the rest of the country. However, this does not mean that we can become complacent as we firmly believe that our unemployment rate is still too high. We need to do all we can within our power to stimulate further employment opportunities, bearing in mind the national economic constraints we face. 

This positive upward employment trend shows that Cape Town is living up to its commitment to be an opportunity city. It is also interesting to note that, in comparison with the other metros, our expanded unemployment rate is the lowest at 23,9%.

There are almost 2,73 million people in the 15 to 64-year age group that form the working-age population. Of the 1,4 million Capetonians employed, 80,89% are employed in the formal sector, 11,27% are employed in the informal sector, 6,17% work in private households and 1,65% work in the agricultural sector. 

While we have many successes to be proud of, there is still a lot of work to be done. And although we have managed to increase our employment and reduce unemployment in the second quarter, job creation will remain one of our top priorities. One of the ways to stimulate the job market is attract more investment into the city. To this end, we will continue to work closely with our partners to bring in the much-needed investment. The two new investment projects and two expansion projects that were facilitated by Wesgro, between April and June this year, helped to create 172 jobs.

Below is a snapshot of the other key economic indicators for Cape Town and the Western Cape for quarter two of 2015:

- The Western Cape contributed 13,72% (R417 billion) of the country’s gross domestic product. Cape Town’s contribution to the national gross geographic product was 9,7% in 2014, making this the second highest contribution countrywide.

- The finance, real-estate and business services sector is the largest economic sector, contributing 32,4% to the city’s gross value added (GVA). Cape Town’s GVA for this sector far outweighs its national contribution of 20,5%.

- The trade sector’s contribution (17,7%) to the city’s GVA is also higher than its national contribution of 14,8%.

- With regard to foreign direct investment, the city attracted six projects to the value of R622,1 million between January and March 2015. The largest investment of R179,3 million was in the software and information technology services sector. The second largest investment was in the solar energy field and brought in an investment of R126,5 million.

- Cape Town’s exports have shown strong and consistent growth over the past 10 years, reaching R55 billion in 2014 and growing by 16,1% from 2013. Encouragingly, import growth slowed to 3,7%  in the same period. The sharp growth in exports compared with moderate import growth has resulted in a decrease in Cape Town’s trade deficit in 2014.

- Despite concerns over the impact of new visa regulations, international arrivals to Cape Town International Airport increased by 7,3% in the second quarter.

Issued by Pierrinne Leukes, Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor, City of Cape Town, 5 November 2015