Job growth booms in Western Cape despite drought

The Western Cape is top of the employment charts‚ says economic opportunities MEC Alan Winde.

Winde said the province:

- Created the most jobs (92‚000) in the last quarter;

- Recorded the highest year-on-year increase (106‚000) in jobs; and

- Has the country’s lowest unemployment rate‚ at 19.5% — 2.4 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

Winde said the finance sector delivered quarterly job growth of 8.3%‚ representing 35 000 jobs‚ and community and social services recorded double-digit growth of 10.2%.

Agriculture delivered quarter-on-quarter growth due to the start of harvesting season‚ but the drought had caused an annual decline of 23%‚ or 57‚000 jobs.

“We expect that this impact will worsen in the first half of this year‚ as a number of agricultural communities have now depleted their water allocations in entirety‚” said Winde. “Our farmers managed to weather the worst of the drought last year‚ but are now faced with severe reductions.

We are likely to see the full impact in the months to follow. The Western Cape government‚ working with other government spheres‚ is doing its utmost to mitigate job losses in this sector.”