South African cities with the best and worst employment rates

Job creation is a crucial measure for citiesbecause workers are the single biggest driver of GDP in any municipality.

The South African Cities Network (SACN), via its latest State fan Cities Report (SoCR) points to ‘unacceptably high’ unemployment rates in all major metropolitan areas.

Nelson Mandela Bay currently leads with the highest unemployment, followed by Mangaung and Ekurhuleni – meanwhile the city of Cape Town metro has the lowest unemployment.

By 2050, South Africa’s urban population is expected to grow to between 19 and 24 million people, accounting for approximately 68% of the population already living there. cities.

Increased urbanization puts additional pressure on already stretched resources and makes it more difficult to achieve the goals of the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) that promote access, growth, governance and spatial transformation, the South African Cities Network said.

It said job creation was undoubtedly the top priority for all spheres of government at present, as Statistics South Africa data revealed one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.

Data from the first quarter of the statistics body show unemployment at 34.5%, with the extended definition much higher than that.

Danga Mughogho, SACN’s program manager, highlighted the country’s enormous youth unemployment crisis – with the youth unemployment rate remaining at a staggering 66.5%.

StatsSA said the country has more than 10 million young people aged 15-24 and, of these, only 2.5 million were in the labor force, both employed and unemployed.

The largest share (7.7 million or 75.1%) of this group of young people are those who are outside the working population (ie inactive). The main reason for being inactive is discouragement, which means they have lost hope of finding a job that suits their skills or in the area where they live.

As many as 37% of this group were disconnected from the labor markets. These are considered as young people not in employment, education or training (NEET).

Of the population of 40 million unemployed in Q1: 2022, more than half (51.6%) were youth – 15-34 years.

The current national enrollment rate was recorded at 37.3% and remains lower for young people at 9% under the ages of 15-24 years.

Mughogho said this age group is best positioned to meet important digital skills requirements, particularly in the IT and data science sectors – where specifically there is a war for talent in the banking and retail sectors – and that cities can do a lot contributing to skills development among our youth, which will go a long way toward eradicating unemployment.

The report provides an insightful look at the nine participating SACNs citiesnamely Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, City of Ekurhuleni, City of Joburg, City of Tshwane, eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, Msunduzi Local Municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and also Cape Town.

The performance of each is reviewed with data from the South African Cities Open Data Almanac (SCODA) – a city-Central open data portal that provides data from trusted sources. The review provides insights into performance measures such as employment, employment, poverty levels, contribution to the national economy and poverty levels, among others.

Here are the cities with the best and worst employment rates:

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Nelson Mandela Bay is located on the shores of Algoa Bay, midway between Cape Town and Durban and 1,058 km from Johannesburg.

The SoCR report showed that 1,207,484 people call it home and it has 347,476 households. As many as 640,000 people live on less than R1.077 per month.

Services are good, according to the report, with 98.6% of households having access to electricity, 97.1% to basic sanitation, 97.7% to water and 88.3% to refusing removal.

Revenue generated by the municipality was R10.1 billion and it spent 100% of its budget.

Msunduzi KwaZulu-Natal

The report shows that 696,689 people live in Msunduzi and 184,205 occupy households. This municipality contains the capital city of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

Unemployment is 34.2%, according to the SoCR report, and this municipality contributes only R32 billion to the national economy. While 97% of households had access to electricity, 99% to basic sanitation and 91% to water, only 52% received weekly municipal waste disposal.

A total of R5.2 billion in revenue was generated, although 115% of its budget was spent.

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City of Johannesburg

De City of Johannesburg has a population of 5,738,536 occupying 1,996,276 households.

De city contributes R445 billion to the national economy, with a workforce of more than 4 million. The report states that 45.5% of the population lives on less than R1,183 per month (2016).

The City of Johannesburg generated revenue of R52.3 billion, of which 95% was spent. When it comes to services, 96.1% of households have electricity, 96% have access to basic sanitation, 97.1% to basic water supply and 91.9% of households have weekly municipal waste.

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Mangaung

Bloemfontein, Botshabelo and Thabo Nchu form the three city centers of Mangaung and together have a population of 858,975, said the SoCR report.

There are 287,026 households of which 11.7% are informal. The municipality contributes R59 billion to the national economy. StatsSA data show a labor force of 343,000.

In the fiscal year 2018/2019, R6.8 billion in revenue was generated by the municipality, but it was 125% above budget.

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Ekurhuleni

The city of Ekurhuleni continues to make a positive contribution to the national economy, having generated R196 billion in 2019, reports the SoCR.

Of the working population in Ekhurleni, 11.6% receive their own income from self-employment compared to the 66.4% who receive pay, wages or commissions.

The report found that R35.1 billion was generated by this city in revenue while 108% of the budget was spent on debt impairment, employee-related costs, contracted services and other expenses.

The main source of income for residents are wages, salaries or commissions (60.6%), while 20% receive a social subsidy, including a parental subsidy. Just 5.2% is in business.

The municipality contributes R42 billion to the national economy. When it comes to services, 91.6% has access to electricity, 93.1% to basic sanitation, 84.5% to basic water supply and 69.1% has weekly municipal waste transportation.

As far as municipal revenue is concerned, this city generated R6.1 billion from waste, sanitation, transfers and subsidies, electricity and property rates, but 105% of its budget was spent.

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Tshwane

The largest metropolitan municipality in the province of Gauteng, it also includes the executive capital Pretoria of South Africa. 3,649,053 live in ‘ecity and there are 1,162,418 households.

The SoCR shows that 93.2% gets access to electricity, 83.7% to basic sanitation, 91.3% to water and 82% receives waste disposal.

De city contributes R296 billion to the national economy. According to StatsSA, it contributes at least 26.8% of Gauteng Province’s GDP and 9.4% of the national economy’s GDP.

Cape Town

De City of Cape Town includes the second largest in South Africa city (Cape Town) and is the legislative capital of the country.

With a population of 4,488,545 or 1,835 people per km² (as of 2019), it has 1,316,712 households, of which 19.3% are informal.

De City of Cape Town contributes R287 billion to the national economy. That said, poverty levels are high with 45.9% of the population living on less than R1.227 per month, while 9.3% receive social subsidies, the SoCR said.

On the positive side, a large number of households have access to electricity (98.6%), basic sanitation (92.4%), basic water supply (95.9%) and weekly municipal waste transport (89.7%).

In the City of Cape Town, R40.5 billion in revenue was generated, while 91% of its total budget was spent.

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eThekwini

eThekwini has a population of 3,890,001 which owns 1,188,068 houses. Among the employees, 9.4% are in business, while 62.3% receive salary, salary or commissions.

The report shows that 14.6% rely on a social income subsidy, and more than 1 million people live on less than R547 per month.

On the positive side, eThekwini contributes R272 billion to the national economy. 98.2% of their more than 1 million homes have access to electricity, 83.6% have basic sanitation, 91.8% have a basic water supply, while 81.4% of households receive weekly municipal waste transportation.

The city generated R34.8 billion in revenue and spent 100% of its budget.

To read: Municipalities of South Africa on the brink of collapse: report