Shoprite, a South African retail company and Africa’s largest food retailer, employs more than 170,000 people, making it the continent’s largest employer of labour according to a new analysis by Africap Research.
The pan market intelligence and research firm, which ranked 30 companies with the largest workforce in Africa, shows that South Africa remains the continent’s largest formal-employment corporate economy, as it accounts for almost all companies in the top 15 in the retail, banking, mining, and industrial sectors.
A breakdown of the list reveals that out of the 30 largest employers featured on the list, South Africa accounts for 22 companies, making it a staggering 73 percent of Africa’s top hiring companies. It also shows that retail is Africa’s biggest private-sector job creator, as several of the largest employers are retailers.
The country dominates this year’s ranking despite battling one of the world’s highest unemployment rates and the highest in Africa.
Data from Statistics South Africa the number of unemployed people rose to 32.7 percent in the first quarter of this year from 31.4 percent in the previous quarter. This means that 8.14 million people have been thrown into the joblessness net.
