Economics
South Africa Bleeds Jobs as Riots Take Toll on Commercial Hubs
- KZN and Gauteng account for half of jobs shed in third quarter
- Unrest in July cost the country about 50 billion rand
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South Africa’s two largest provinces by contribution to gross domestic product accounted for half of jobs lost in the third quarter as deadly riots in July saw thousands of businesses ransacked and shuttered.
The number of people employed in the commercial hub of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces fell by 323,502 to 6.7 million, pushing the nation’s jobless rate to a new record, Statistics South Africa said in a report on Tuesday.