Statistics South Africa’s latest figures show that eThekwini’s unemployment rate fell to 21.2% between April and June 2026, below Cape Town’s 21.9% and the national rate of 33.6%.
eThekwini Municipality has recorded South Africa’s lowest official unemployment rate among metropolitan municipalities, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter of 2026.
Statistics South Africa’s latest figures show that eThekwini’s unemployment rate fell to 21.2% between April and June 2026, below Cape Town’s 21.9% and the national rate of 33.6%.
The figure represents a 5.6 percentage point decline from the 26.8% recorded in the same quarter in 2025, the largest decrease among the country’s metros over the period.
The number of employed residents increased by 90,000 year-on-year to 1.29 million, while the number of unemployed residents fell by 92,000 to 347,000.
