50 000 jobs lost in Limpopo

Limpopo lost 55,000 jobs between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. This is according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey report for the first quarter of 2025, released by Stats SA.

The DA in the Province has called upon Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba and her provincial administration to remove the structural barriers to economic growth and job creation, or face the province becoming a welfare state.

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According to the party, the expanded unemployment rate in Limpopo is at 48.6%, the second highest in the country.

“This includes those citizens of Limpopo who have lost all hope of finding work. Nearly one in every two working-age people in Limpopo is now unemployed or discouraged,” said DA Provincial Leader Lindy Wilson.

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“Even more worrying is that only 36.5% of Limpopo’s working-age population are employed. That’s well below the national average and shows that our provincial economy, under the control of the ANC, simply isn’t absorbing people into work.

According to the labour force participation rate which sits at just 54.8%, nearly half of our people have been pushed out of the job market entirely,” added Wilson.

“These numbers speak to the lived reality (a crisis) for far too many Limpopo residents. Particularly young people who are being left behind in an economy that is failing them. It is not just a statistical crisis. It is a human one.

“Commercial agriculture has remained a mainstay for the province, despite little support from the provincial government. Mining, on the other hand, showed a significant decline.”