Almost one in four working-age South Africans lives in three metros in Gauteng – Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg – and fewer of them are employed now than in 2015.
In September this year 4.35-million people had jobs compared with 4.4-million people in the same quarter of 2015. This is a drop of 50,000, according to the latest employment data by Stats SA.
However, between 2015 and 2022 the working age population (15-64 years) in these metros has increased by 1.2-million from 8.3-million to 9.5-million.
The decrease in the number of people employed was because of Ekurhuleni which shed over 110,000 jobs between 2015 and 2022.
Cape Town and eThekwini both have more people working now than in 2015
In KwaZulu-Natal, eThekwini has the fifth biggest working-age population and the number of people working has increased from 1.1-million to 1.2-million between 2015 and 2022.
Cape Town has the second largest working-age population in the country and the second largest number of working people outside of Johannesburg.
The number of people employed in the city has grown slightly from 1.47-million to 1.5-million over the past five years.
