| The previous post showed how employment (formal and informal) grew in South Africa between 1993 and 2020. This post highlights the growth in unemployment. According to the data, unemployment only delined in the remote areas of Middleburg and Cradock in the Eastern Cape. In the rest of the country, it snowballed. Over nearly three decades, the highest unemployment growth was in the areas immediately adjacent to Cape Town and the areas around Gauteng and specifically in the municipalities associated with mining. Conversely, the lowest increase in unemployment was in the Eastern Cape. However, growth in unemployment provides us with the mirror image of population growth and urbanisation, which shows how the jobless migrated to areas of perceived opportunity. The second map below shows the 2020 unemployment rates for South Africa. High unemployment is still associated with our deep rural areas, which remains a catalyst for the unemployed to migrate and urbanise.
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