Premier pleased with Limpopo significant employment growth

Limpopo

Premier of Limpopo Province, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, said she is pleased with improvement in job creation that saw the province’s unemployment rate dropping to 31,4%.

This was revealed by the 2024 Quarter 2 Labour Force Survey results that have shown that Limpopo is among the two top provinces in South Africa to have created more jobs in the second quarter of 2024. The results were released by the Statistician General, Risenga Maluleka recently.

 Whilst general unemployment in the country has increased to 33,5%, the largest increases in jobs created were observed in Gauteng where 42 000 jobs were created, followed by Limpopo with 31 000 job creation and the Eastern Cape that managed to create 25 000 job opportunities.

 “We are pleased with the report from Statistics South Africa showing that we have increased the number of jobs we have created in the past quarter. Our resolve is to fight unemployment. Any increase in the number of jobs we can create helps us in this battle,” said Ramathuba.

 She further said that Limpopo has potential to increase the number of jobs as shown in the Labour Surveys of 2023, wherein the province was among the leading provinces in increasing job creation.

Ramathuba said although being second best in job creation in 2023 with 182 000 jobs created, it is still not enough to bring a drop in the overall unemployment rate in the province currently standing at 31,4% for Limpopo.

“What worries us the most on this Women’s Month is that we still see a huge number of women amongst the unemployed. I will be very much happy if we can increase the number of women who get employed because we know that once a woman is employed, she feeds the entire village,” she said.

Ramathuba indicated that the Limpopo Provincial government has set its eyes on industrialisation and agriculture as areas where it will help with growing the economy and creating more opportunities for employment.

Premier Ramathuba gave marching orders recently during the opening of legislature by saying that all projects that have potential to create jobs that have stalled should be resuscitated immediately.

Projects like the Lebowakgomo Abattoir, Musina-Makhado SEZ and the Zebediela Citrus Farm are amongst those that she wants to see operationalised in the next few weeks.

She also encouraged the support for SMMEs so that in that way it would influence the informal sector that helps a lot in decreasing unemployment.