"Free State" the only province with the net job loss since 2003

As per Statistics South Africa, since last 10 years the unemployment rate in nine provinces across South Africa remained significantly unchanged, among which the Free State alone was the only province to report the net loss of jobs since 2003.

According to Stats report for national and provincial trends for 2003-2013, old figures shows that South Africa gained 2.1-million jobs over the period and have covered wide variety of variations across the provinces which differed in both, the demographic profile and economic structure.

This report is a collection of Stats quarterly labour force surveys done over a period, including the third quarter part of 2013, which was released by Stats SA last month.

Stats SA deputy director-general for population and social statistics Kefiloe Masiteng said on Tuesday - Employment rates had reached at the top in 2008, but the labour requirement rate remained at 41.9%. This was fair low than the rate in 2006 which was 45% as the job growth failed to manage the new entries in the labour market.   

The bigger loss seen in the Free State was due to recession seen in the agriculture and the mining industries along with the gold sector which created a red impact over the period- as per the report.

The Free State reported a loss of 98,000 jobs over the period, with a decline of 1.2%. On the other side Limpopo was reported with highest economic growth rate of 3.7% and served 345,000 jobs.

Limpopo and Gauteng were the only two provinces which were reported with no loss in the agricultural employment, the most affected field during the period which lost 188,000 jobs. In Limpopo the unemployment rate was seen to be decreasing from 28.8% in 2003 to 17.8% in 2013 and now the lowest in South Africa.

The economic performance of Limpopo seems to differ for 2011, which created a scenario in which lots of people migrated to richer provinces for better job opportunities and government services. The population in Limpopo declined by 152,857 since 2001, the Northern Cape by 6,735, the Eastern Cape lost 278,261 citizens and the Free State 24,301.

Karen Heese- the Municipal IQ economist said that increased migration of more and more people was also due to additional factors like economic opportunities and access to services poverty.  

The labour market dynamics report were also released by Stats SA for last year, according to which around 60% of people who migrated to Western Cape and Gauteng for employment reasons in oppose to 42.8% to Limpopo.