By: Business tech

The North West province continues to be the only province in South Africa with more unemployed people than those who are employed, leading to urgent calls for this severe joblessness to be declared a provincial disaster.

According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) from Statistics South Africa, the national unemployment rate rose to 33.2% in the second quarter of 2025, up from 32.9% in the previous quarter and 31.9% at the end of 2024.

Between April and June 2025, 159,000 people entered the labour force, but only 19,000 found jobs. This resulted in 140,000 individuals being added to the unemployed population.

The number of discouraged work-seekers—those who have stopped looking for work—decreased slightly by 28,000. The number of people not economically active for other reasons remained steady.

The expanded unemployment rate, which includes those discouraged job seekers, saw a marginal decline from 43.1% to 42.9%. However, provincial disparities remain stark.

Gauteng and the Eastern Cape were the top performers, with employment gains of 95,000 and 89,000, respectively.

In contrast, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern Cape suffered job losses of 117,000, 86,000, and 28,000.

Despite these losses, the Western Cape still boasts the lowest official unemployment rate, at 21.1%, and is the only province where the expanded rate remains below 30%.

The North West is in the most dire situation. It records an official unemployment rate of 40.1% and an expanded rate of 54.7%—meaning more than half of its working-age population is without work. It is the only province where the majority of adults are either unemployed or have completely exited the labour force.

Approximately 14.6% of the unemployed in the North West have given up looking for work. The province also has the country’s lowest labour absorption rate, at 31.6%, and one of the lowest labour force participation rates, at 52.7%.

The province’s economic backbone, the mining sector—and particularly platinum mining—is central to this crisis, contributing 28% to the provincial GDP. Manufacturing plays a smaller, supporting role, focused mainly on food, beverages, and metals. A rise in commodity prices in 2021 offered a temporary economic boost, but the mining sector has since entered a technical recession after contracting in the first quarter of 2025.

This decline in mining is a national microcosm. The industry faces persistent challenges including regulatory uncertainty, which has severely discouraged investment, and crippling operational disruptions caused by failures at state-owned enterprises like Eskom and Transnet. According to Old Mutual Wealth chief investment strategist Izak Odendaal, the sector has been in a long-term decline over the past decade, with both output and employment suffering.

The precarious state of the mining sector is inextricably linked to the province's unemployment disaster. Governance failures have compounded these economic difficulties. The Auditor-General has highlighted instability in municipal leadership, weak internal controls, and poor service delivery as areas requiring urgent intervention.

While some progress has been noted, these deep-seated problems continue to hamper economic performance. The Democratic Alliance (DA) emphasized that over 1.5 million residents are now jobless.

“Our absorption rate of 31.6% is the lowest in the country, and labour force participation is among the lowest nationally at 52.7%,” the party stated in response to the labour statistics.

On 4 July, the DA submitted a memorandum to Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, formally calling for unemployment to be declared a provincial disaster. Their proposals included establishing a Youth Employment War Room, creating a jobs turnaround plan with measurable targets, improving infrastructure to support growth, and publishing quarterly updates on investment and job creation.

The party reports that there has been no response from the Premier and no indication of a provincial plan to address the jobs crisis.

The DA acknowledged that job creation primarily depends on the private sector but stressed that the provincial government must act to create a conducive, business-friendly environment and support sustainable economic growth. They have now called on the provincial Portfolio Committee to address the issue directly with the Premier.