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The official unemployment rate in the Eastern Cape increased by 1% between the first and second quarters and by 0.2% year-on-year (y/y), according to figures released this morning by Statis-tics South Africa.
The figures show that the official unemployment rate in the province in the second quarter was 30.4%, up from 29.4% in the previous quarter, and the third highest in the country after Free State (35%) and Northern Cape (32.3%).
At the same time, however, the number of people employed in the Eastern Cape increased.
In the second quarter 1 355 000 people were employed, an increase of 23 000 or 1.8% on the first quarter and a substantial 72 000 (5.6%) more than the second quarter of 2013, the third highest after Limpopo (114 000) and the Western Cape (93 000).
The figures also show that the number of discouraged job seekers in the Eastern Cape - those that have effectively given up hope of securing employment - increased by 39 000 y/y to 442 000 but decreased by 3 000 quarter-on-quarter (q/q).
A boom in the construction industry in the Eastern Cape meant that 32 000 more people were employed in this sector q/q and 20 000 y/y.
In percentage terms, this was a 14.7% (y/y) and 26.1% q/q increase. In the second quarter 154 000 people were employed in the construction industry.
More people were also employed in private households with the number in-creasing by 11 000 (9.8%.) o 124 000 in the second quarter compared to the first and by 10 000 (8.8%) y/y.
The Eastern Cape shed jobs in the man-ufacturing sector, with the number em-ployed dropping by 22 000 or 13.3% to 143 000 y/y and by 5 000 or 3% q/q the number of those employed in the trade sector also declining by 28 000 or 9.6% y/y and 9 000 or 3.5% q/q.
Employment in the agricultural sector was also down, dropping by some 15 000 (17.8%) y/y but increasing by 4 000 (6.6%) to 71 000 q/q.
Meanwhile, Stats SA says the country's unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percent between the first and second quarters of 2014 to reach 25.5 percent.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released today revealed that almost 5.2 million people were unemployed.
Source: Metrominute. To subscribe mail metminutes@iafrica.com
