The City of Cape Town has added 86 000 jobs in a year, reaching a record level of 1.827-million people now in jobs – this according to Statistics South Africa’s (StatsSA) Quarterly Labour Force survey for the first quarter of the year.

Cape Town’s broad labour force participation rate of 74.6% is also at an all-time high for the metro.

“Despite the national decline in employment, Cape Town continues to be the place where the prospects of finding a job shine brighter than in any other metro,” says Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

“The city continues to run targeted initiatives and campaigns to support our high-growth industries, which is evident in the growth in services, such as call centres, over the last decade,” says Economic Growth MMC James Vos.

“More than R6.4-billion in investments and over 15 000 jobs were directly secured in 2024 via the city’s support to 11 industry growth partners, across sectors such as business process outsourcing, technology, clothing and textile manufacturing and marine manufacturing.

“Looking ahead, my priority will be the roll-out of the Productivity Efficiency Programme to assist companies, as well as the Business Retention and Expansion Initiative across the city’s industrial nodes, to drive further job-creating economic growth.”

StatsSA reports that South Africa’s official unemployment rate has increased to 32.9% in the first quarter of the year, jumping a percentage point from the last quarter.