At least 109 000 new jobs in Joburg this year

The City of Johannesburg defied the provincial and national employment trends, producing 109 000 new jobs in the first two quarters of this year and reduced the expanded unemployment rate from 32.3 per cent to 30.8 per cent, Randburg Sun reports.

This according to Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba who said this was despite the national unemployment rate rising to 27.2 per cent.

“Unfortunately, this growth in Johannesburg has taken place at a time when we must sympathise with the 418 000 more people joining the ranks of the unemployed nationally, and 115 000 more in Gauteng over the same period,” he said.

Mashaba said the latest jobs statistics for the City show that, steadily, a greater degree of business confidence is developing.

“This has been apparent by the City achieving a record R8.7 Billion in investment in the 2017/18 financial year, exceeding our targets by more than R3 Billion.”

Mashaba announced after taking office in 2016 that he aims to grow the City’s economy by five per cent per year by 2021, the end of his administration’s five-year term.

He said the City has focused on producing an environment to foster economic and job growth in Joburg.

These relate to infrastructure renewal, the stability of services, establishing the rule of law and moving towards a professional civil service, he said.

The City now also aims to create 14 Opportunity Centres throughout the City. The plan is to have two in every one of the seven regions throughout the City, also by 2021.