Johannesburg - Of the 13.4 million South Africans employed in 2009, the majority were found in Gauteng, the country's economic and industrial hub.
This is according to a survey compiled by the SA Institute of Race Relations (SIRR) published on Wednesday.
It said about four million people were employed in the province in 2009, accounting for nearly 30% of all employed people in the country. KwaZulu-Natal had the second-highest workforce, with about 2.5 million people employed in that province.
This accounted for 18.4% of all employed people. The Eastern Cape and the Western Cape were the only two other provinces which had more than one million employed people.
Although Gauteng had the highest number of people with jobs in South Africa, it also had the highest unemployment rate of 23.1%. About 1.2 million Gauteng residents were jobless in 2009, with 29% of all South Africa's unemployed people living in that province.
Perhaps surprisingly, KwaZulu-Natal had the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa, with 19.3% of the province's population being without work. However, it had by far the highest number of discouraged workseekers (those who are available for work, but have given up actively looking for jobs).
About 448 000 KwaZulu-Natal residents were discouraged workseekers in 2009.
The Eastern Cape had the second-highest number of discouraged workseekers, at 302 000. The inclusion of discouraged workseekers gives KwaZulu-Natal a wider unemployment rate of 29.6%.
Development plays major part
Despite having the largest number of jobless people in South Africa, Gauteng's provincial unemployment rate of 23.1% was the third-lowest in the country. It had the fourth-highest number of discouraged workseekers at 160 000, after KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. With the inclusion of discouraged workseekers, Gauteng's unemployment rate was 25.4%.
The province with the lowest number of discouraged workseekers was the Western Cape, with 33 000 people having given up hope of finding jobs in that province. At 20.5% it also had the second-lowest unemployment rate.
Taking discouraged workseekers into account, only three provinces (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape) had unemployment rates of under 30% in 2009.
The province with the highest unemployment rate when discouraged workseekers are factored in was the Eastern Cape, at 37.9%. Limpopo had the second-highest rate of unemployment, at 36.4%.
"It is clear that any strategy designed to fight unemployment will need to take into account regional differences", said SIRR researcher Kerwin Lebone.
"Unemployment rates are relatively low in the three most developed provinces of the country, while the more rural and underdeveloped provinces, such as the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, suffer from high unemployment rates and large numbers of discouraged workseekers," Lebone said.
- Fin24.com