'Gauteng needs 400,000 jobs a year'
A massive influx of people into the country's economic hub has placed additional pressure on Premier David Makhura's government to create jobs.
A little more than 16,200 people monthly have moved into Gauteng in search of economic opportunities in the past three years, raising the provincial population numbers by 585,000 to 13.2million people.
Makhura - delivering his year-end political report yesterday in the Gauteng legislature - said second-quarter figures (July-September) saw the provincial economy grow by 2.9%, up from 0.1% in the preceding three months.
Gauteng registered the highest number of jobs created (126,000) in the second quarter, compared with 93000 jobs in Eastern Cape and 49000 in Western Cape.
Despite the jobs created, unemployment dropped by a paltry 0.4%.
"We all know this is not enough.
"We need our economy to create at least 400,000 jobs per annum if we are to deal with the scourge of unemployment, and the perennial challenge of rapid urban migration," said Makhura.
He said his administration was developing 700 townshipbased suppliers, fitting them into the provincial supply chain and linking them with the province's larger suppliers.
Source: The Times