The recently released Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) by StatsSA showed gains in employment in the first quarter of 2022 as compared to the same quarter in 2021. About 26 000 more people were employed in quarter one of 2022 equating to a 2% increase in employed people in Durban.

According to the latest QLFS publication, the official unemployment rate increased from 27,7% to 28,4% between the fourth quarter of 2021 and quarter one of 2022 in Durban. The participation rate increased by 11% in quarter one of 2022 when compared to the same quarter last year. The number of discouraged persons decreased by -19%, which indicates that more people were actively searching for work during this period. 

The survey results for the country overall show that there were more than 7.9 million unemployed people in South Africa during the first quarter of the year, despite an overall decline in the joblessness rates. The number of unemployed persons decreased by about 60,000.

The changes in employment and unemployment resulted in the official unemployment rate decreasing by 0.8 of a percentage point, from 35.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 34.5% in the first quarter of 2022.

It should be noted that although the job market had begun to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels in quarter one of this year for the City, the April 2022 floods resulted in economic disruptions and reversed some of these gains.

The effect of the April floods can be seen from the results of an Economic Activity and Outlook Information Survey that the City’s Economic Development Unit conducted in April following the flood.

The survey was conducted on businesses based in Durban to establish the impact of damages sustained. According to survey results, almost 7,900 jobs are estimated to have been lost due to the flooding and most of these jobs lost are in the low-skilled/ semi-skilled category. The flooding has therefore increased the vulnerability of the City’s labour market. Therefore, while StatsSA’s Labour Force Survey indicates an increase in labour at the opening of the year, a decline in the job market is expected in the City’s Q2 2022 figures, to be released in August.

For more detailed data and further insights go to The Durban EDGE portal: EThekwini Labour Force - Datasets - EDGE Open Data Portal