North West urged to declare unemployment a provincial disaster

The North West province continues to face a crippling unemployment crisis, with new data showing that more people are jobless than working. Opposition parties are now calling for joblessness to be declared a provincial disaster.

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

Between April and June, 159,000 people entered the labour market, but only 19,000 secured employment. The remaining 140,000 joined the ranks of the unemployed. Although the number of discouraged work-seekers fell slightly by 28,000, the expanded unemployment rate – which includes those who have given up looking for work – still sits at a high 42.9%.

While Gauteng and the Eastern Cape saw notable job gains, with 95,000 and 89,000 more people employed respectively, other provinces fared poorly. The Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern Cape all recorded significant job losses.

Despite those losses, the Western Cape still has the lowest official unemployment rate at 21.1% and remains the only province with an expanded unemployment rate below 30%.

The situation is far worse in the North West, which now has the highest unemployment rate in the country. The province’s official unemployment rate stands at 40.1%, while the expanded rate has reached a staggering 54.7%, meaning more than half of the working-age population is jobless. It is the only province where the majority of adults are either unemployed or have stopped looking for work altogether.

The North West also has the lowest labour absorption rate at 31.6% and one of the lowest labour force participation rates at 52.7%. Around 14.6% of its unemployed residents have given up hope of finding work.

The province’s economy is heavily dependent on mining, especially platinum, which contributes 28% of its GDP. However, the sector has slipped into recession, contracting in the first quarter of 2025 after a brief boost from rising commodity prices in 2021.

Nationally, mining has been hampered by regulatory uncertainty, unreliable electricity supply from Eskom, and logistics bottlenecks at Transnet. Old Mutual Wealth chief investment strategist Izak Odendaal noted that the sector has been in long-term decline for more than a decade in both output and employment.

Governance problems have compounded the North West’s economic challenges. The Auditor-General has repeatedly flagged instability in municipal leadership, weak financial controls, and poor service delivery as issues that undermine growth.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has sounded the alarm, saying more than 1.5 million North West residents are unemployed. “Our absorption rate of 31.6% is the lowest in the country, and labour force participation is among the weakest nationally at 52.7%,” the party said in a statement.

On 4 July, the DA submitted a memorandum to Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, urging him to declare unemployment a provincial disaster. Among its proposals were the creation of a Youth Employment War Room, a jobs turnaround plan with measurable targets, improved infrastructure to support growth, and the publication of quarterly investment and job creation updates.

The party criticised the provincial government for failing to respond to its proposals or outline a clear plan to address the jobs crisis. “While job creation largely depends on the private sector, government must play its part in creating a business-friendly environment that supports sustainable growth,” the DA added.

The party has since called on the provincial Portfolio Committee to confront the Premier directly about the unemployment crisis.