BusinessTech reports that Statistic SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) shows that in the North West and Eastern Cape more people are unemployed than working.

The official unemployment rate dropped to 31.9% in the third quarter of 2025, down from 33.2% in the previous quarter. This marked a 1.3 percentage point improvement and meant that about 248,000 more people found jobs, bringing the total number of employed South Africans to 17.1 million. At the same time, the number of unemployed people fell by 360,000 to 8 million. But across all the provinces, the differences were striking. The Western Cape continued to have the lowest official unemployment rate at 19.7%. Limpopo followed at 29.8%, while the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal recorded rates of 31.2% and 31.7% respectively. However, the situation looks much worse in the Eastern Cape and North West.

The Eastern Cape was the only province to record an increase in unemployment in the third quarter. Under the new expanded definition, its unemployment rate now sits at 50.2%, meaning more than half of its adult population is unemployed. The North West is in an even worse position, with an expanded unemployment rate of 52.5%. The survey makes it clear that SA’s unemployment is still in crisis, with deep regional gaps showing who is benefiting from economic recovery and who is not.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Malcolm Libera at BusinessTech

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