South Africa’s richest province lost 67,000 jobs in three months

South Africa’s economic hub of Gauteng lost 67,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2026, with the province increasingly unable to absorb a growing labour force into its economy. 

Gauteng has historically been one of the largest recipients of immigrants in South Africa because of the economic opportunity it represents. 

The province is still South Africa’s economic hub, contributing the lion’s share of South Africa’s GDP and housing the heart of its capital markets. 

However, leadership instability and municipal mismanagement have left the province unable to provide basic services to many of its newer residents. 

This has seemingly begun to impact the operations of businesses in the province, with economic data pointing to its economic growth slowing. 

Stats SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) revealed that the province lost 67,000 jobs in the first three months of 2026. 

This was the second-highest in any province, with only the North-West suffering a larger loss in employment. KwaZulu-Natal was the only province to add jobs in the first quarter. 

More broadly, 8.1 million South Africans are now unemployed, with the country’s economy simply not growing fast enough to absorb a growing labour force. 

The country adds around 100,000 formal jobs each year, compared with labour force growth of 500,000. 

Luckily, South Africa has a relatively strong jobs coefficient, meaning that economic growth typically leads to the creation of more jobs. 

Stagnant economic growth over the past 15 years has led to an unemployment rate that surged from less than 25% to over 32% at the end of the first quarter of 2026. 

This stands in stark contrast to the ANC’s plan to reduce unemployment to 6% by 2030 under the National Development Plan.

Such a plan would have required the creation of over half a million jobs every year for nearly two decades – something which it managed up until 2018. 

Instead, the country’s unemployment rate has continued to tick up to 32.7%, and now two provinces have more people unemployed than employed. 

Gauteng’s collapse

Gauteng, as the economic hub of South Africa, has always borne outsized responsibility for employment and output in the country. 

Until the past decade, the province has managed to provide economic opportunities to large swaths of semigrants and immigrants, with its economic growth outpacing that of much of the rest of South Africa. 

However, the province has been plagued by mismanagement and deteriorating infrastructure, resulting in economic stagnation and a lack of job creation. 

While the province’s population has grown significantly over the past decade, there has not been a corresponding increase in infrastructure investment. 

This has left the province with ageing infrastructure that is increasingly unreliable, resulting in sporadic power cuts and water shortages. 

No part of the province exemplifies this better than Johannesburg, where over 50% of reservoirs are leaking and unable to supply water to residents effectively. 

Around 46% of Johannesburg’s water is lost before it reaches the end user through leaks and illegal connections. 

The city, which has the largest budget of any municipality in South Africa, is also increasingly unable to collect sufficient revenue. 

As of the end of 2025, the city was owed R71.9 billion from households, businesses, and state entities. More than 70% of these unpaid bills are over a year old. 

The city is failing to meet its own collection targets, while its three previous debt-relief programmes generated only R500 million in additional revenue. 

This has been coupled with severe financial troubles for the city, which allegedly owes creditors R25.2 billion while only having R3.9 billion in the bank. 

“This is a market of severe financial distress, indicating that the city does not have the liquidity required to pay its creditors,” Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said in a recent letter to Mayor Dada Morero.

This situation led Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s CEO, Wayne Duvenage, to say the city is effectively bankrupt. 

Johannesburg is also unable to tap capital markets, with the JSE suspending trading in its bonds at the end of March due to its failure to publish audited financial statements. 

These statements for the year ended 30 June 2025 are currently being finalised by the city, with “technical accounting matters” resolved. 

The mismanagement of Johannesburg and Gauteng more broadly has impacted their role as the country’s economic hub, with the region shedding jobs at an alarming rate.