By Lebone Rodah Mosima
eThekwini Municipality has recorded the lowest official unemployment rate among South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities, after falling by 5.6 percentage points year-on-year.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter of 2026, released by Statistics South Africa on Wednesday, eThekwini’s unemployment rate fell to 21.2% between April and June 2026, from 26.8% in the same quarter last year.
The rate was lower than Cape Town’s 21.9% and significantly below the national unemployment rate of 33.6%.
The municipality said the number of employed residents increased to 1.29 million, up by 90,000 compared with the second quarter of 2025.
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“Over the same period, unemployed residents fell by 92,000 to 347,000, making eThekwini the only metro to record declines both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year,” the municipality said.
The city’s absorption rate, which measures the share of working-age residents
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