Premier Alan Winde and provincial Minister of Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism Dr Ivan Meyer, have welcomed the latest Quarterly Labour Force Statistics (QLFS) released today by Statistics South Africa, which show that the Western Cape’s unemployment rate has declined to 19.7% in Quarter 3 of 2025.
This is down from 21.1 in Quarter 2 2025.
This remains the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa.
The latest data shows that:
- 65 000 jobs were added in Quarter 3 2025, year-on-year; and
- 70 000 jobs were created in the Western Cape quarter-on-quarter, the most jobs in South Africa for Q3 2025.
“This is the result of the hard work this government undertakes in partnership with businesses and companies in the Western Cape, building confidence and trust in pursuit of our apex priority of economic growth and job creation,” stated the Premier.
He added, “These figures are especially encouraging as we just last week concluded the first Western Cape Investment Summit, held from 5-7 November, where we helped to enable 6 major investment declarations for the province, worth R50 billion. This will help to create an estimated 45 000 jobs in the Western Cape over the next several years.”
Minister Meyer said, “The data is very encouraging as it takes us another step closer to realising our goal of 600 000 new jobs by 2035 as outlined in the Western Cape Government's Growth for Jobs (G4J) Strategy."
Premier Winde continued, “We must continue to work as hard as we can. We will intensify efforts to attract and support investment into critical sectors of the provincial economy, including tourism, manufacturing, agribusiness, and services, so that job growth accelerates and reaches all corners of the province.”
Enquiries:
Media Liaison Officer to the Premier
Regan Thaw
Cell: 083 627 7246
E-mail: Regan.Thaw@westerncape.gov.za
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