The Eastern Cape is facing a full-blown employment emergency, says the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) business chamber.
This come as the country’s newest jobs data confirms that the province’s employment rate is not keeping pace with national labour market trends.
The Quarter 4 2025 Labour Force Survey, released by Statistics South Africa last week, shows that South Africa’s official unemployment rate inched lower by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year, to 31.4%.
In sharp contrast to this, the Eastern Cape recorded a 5.9 percentage point increase – the largest deterioration seen in any province.
Seven provinces improved, yet the Eastern Cape went in the opposite direction, says NMB business chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen.
“This reflects structural weakness in the provincial economy.”
The provincial unemployment rate now stands at 42.5%, more than 11 percentage points above the national average.
“The youth are suffering disproportionately,” notes Van Huyssteen.
“National youth unemployment stands at 43.8%, but in the Eastern Cape it is estimated at approximately 54%.
“Nearly one in two young people in our province cannot access employment. Youth exclusion at this scale is economically unsustainable and socially destabilising.”
Van Huyssteen adds that the national picture is no cause for celebration.
“Total employment across all sectors grew by a mere 0.12% year-on-year, with only 21 000 jobs added in 2025.
“Within this context, manufacturing employment collapsed by 7.6% year-on-year, equating to roughly 127 000 jobs lost.
“This mirrors the country’s domestic industrial performance: South Africa’s total manufacturing production volumes decreased by 1.3% in 2025 compared to 2024, while manufacturing sales (in current prices, before adjusting for inflation) declined by 0.6% over the same annual period.”
For the Eastern Cape, which relies heavily on export-driven sectors such as automotive manufacturing and other types of manufacturing, these national trends translate into acute local challenges, says Van Huyssteen.
She says businesses in NMB are under sustained pressure.
“The rising influx of cheap imports into the market, lack of agility in policy changes, electricity unreliability and increasing energy costs, as well as inadequate water, sanitation and electricity infrastructure maintenance all impact the competitiveness of manufacturers and are placing manufacturing jobs at risk.
“Staff reductions across multiple companies and weakening supplier networks are compounding the crisis.”
The automotive sector remains strategically critical to the province’s wellbeing, says Van Huyssteen.
The South African Automotive Master Plan aims for 60% localisation by 2035, yet current localisation levels have slipped to between 30% and 40%.
“If localisation continues to regress, we risk hollowing out our [component] supplier base and permanently losing industrial capacity.
“Government’s incentive frameworks must prioritise genuine domestic value addition and completely knocked-down assembly to secure sustainable manufacturing jobs.
“We need coordinated, urgent and decisive intervention to prevent the province and the metro from falling further behind the national recovery path,” says Van Huyssteen.
“The figures are unequivocal – without structural reforms, enforceable localisation, and accelerated infrastructure recovery, the Eastern Cape will continue to diverge from even the most modest national employment recovery, with long-term consequences for growth, social stability and industrial capacity.”
Irma Venter
www.engineeringnews.co.za