Cape Town has recorded the largest year-on-year jobs gain among South Africa’s major metros, adding 113,000 jobs in the past year and pushing total employment to an all-time high of 1.895-million people.
The figures, drawn from Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the fourth quarter of 2025, show the Mother City maintaining the lowest unemployment rate among the country’s major metros, now at 19.8%.
Nationally, employment increased by 44,000 to 17.1-million in the fourth quarter of 2025, while the number of unemployed people declined by 172,000 to 7.8-million compared with the third quarter. The national unemployment rate stood at 31.4%.
Cape Town’s year-on-year gain of 113,000 jobs outpaced other metros. Over the current local government term, the city says it has added 470,000 jobs.
Notably, Cape Town’s unemployment rate fell below 20% for the first time since 2009. The metro recorded strong fourth-quarter growth, likely supported by a robust tourism season, alongside improvements across key indicators, including the labour force participation rate, absorption rate and overall employment levels.
Mayor: ‘encouraging momentum’
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis welcomed the figures, describing them as a sign of sustained economic momentum despite some challenges.
“We are elated to see employment hit record levels in Cape Town,” he said. “Cape Town’s leading jobs growth and lowest unemployment rate is an encouraging sign that our city keeps heading in the right direction, even though there is still so much more to do in bringing down unemployment.”
Hill-Lewis said the city planned to invest a record R40bn in infrastructure in the next three years, with 75% of the spending directed at projects benefiting lower-income households through improved infrastructure and service delivery.
“We are especially overjoyed for everyone who found a job in the past year and can now make a meaningful difference for their families. Our promise is to keep working at growing employment so that many more Capetonians can experience the dignity of work and a pathway out of poverty,” he said.
Western Cape leads nationally
The Western Cape also posted strong employment indicators:
- The provincial unemployment rate declined by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year, reaching a five-year low in Q4 2025.
- At 19.8%, it remains substantially lower than the national rate of 31.4%, making it the lowest in the country.
- Seven out of ten sectors added jobs year-on-year, with trade (+48,000), agriculture (+22,000) and construction (+22,000) driving growth in Q4 2025.
- The province maintained one of the highest labour force participation rates in the country at 68.8%, well above the national rate of 59.3%.
The province’s youth NEET rate, measuring young people aged 15–24 not in employment, education or training, declined by 6.6% quarter-on-quarter. The Western Cape was one of only three provinces to see a decrease, and saw the largest improvement among them.
Western Cape premier Alan Winde said the numbers demonstrated that the province’s economic strategy was gaining traction.
“This latest data proves that everything we are doing in the Western Cape to build an enabling job-creation ecosystem is working, and we are gaining more momentum,” he said. “We still have much more work to do, though, and we cannot lose sight of the fact that far too many people remain unemployed.”
Winde added that the figures reflected collaboration between the government and the private sector to build confidence and stimulate growth.
Focus on investment and growth sectors
Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for economic growth, James Vos, said the city would continue prioritising investment promotion and business support to sustain employment growth.
“I’m thrilled that Cape Town continues to add jobs at a record pace. This shows that our strategy to focus on high-growth sectors, including manufacturing, tourism, hospitality, construction, technology and financial services, is paying off,” he said.
Vos said the city’s special-purpose vehicle partnership programmes were helping businesses expand and create jobs while investing in practical skills training.
“We still have a long way to go, but this shows that when strategy is deployed effectively in the economy, it delivers results that improve people’s lives,” Vos said.
TimesLIVE
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