Did the DA in North West get a rural municipality’s unemployment rate right?
This article is more than 6 years old
Bordering Botswana, Ratlou local municipality “is an extremely impoverished municipality with an unemployment rate of 69%”, the Democratic Alliance in the North West province recently tweeted.
The municipality has an estimated population of 107,339 people, according to South Africa’s 2011 census. (Note: Census data provides the most recent data at the municipal level until data from the 2016 community survey data are released later in 2017 or early 2018, Peter Buwembo, Statistics South Africa’s executive manager for labour statistics, told Africa Check.)
The census estimated Ratlou’s narrow unemployment rate at 43.9% - that is the share of people who couldn’t find a job despite actively looking for one.
But when people who had given up looking for a job were considered (the broad unemployment rate), the estimate rose to 64.9%. For young people between 15 and 34, it was even higher: a staggering 72.1%.
Source: Census 2011
Additional reading:
https://africacheck.org/spot-check/south-africas-youth-unemployment-rate-56-tweet-claimed/
https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-unemployment-statistics-in-south-africa-explained/
Ratlou is an extremely impoverished municipality with an unemployment rate of 69%.
— DA North-West (@DA_NorthWest) October 18, 2017
The municipality has an estimated population of 107,339 people, according to South Africa’s 2011 census. (Note: Census data provides the most recent data at the municipal level until data from the 2016 community survey data are released later in 2017 or early 2018, Peter Buwembo, Statistics South Africa’s executive manager for labour statistics, told Africa Check.)
The census estimated Ratlou’s narrow unemployment rate at 43.9% - that is the share of people who couldn’t find a job despite actively looking for one.
But when people who had given up looking for a job were considered (the broad unemployment rate), the estimate rose to 64.9%. For young people between 15 and 34, it was even higher: a staggering 72.1%.
| Youth (15-34 years) | General (15-64 years) | |||
| Narrow | Expanded | Narrow | Expanded | |
| Ratlou | 52.4% | 72.1% | 43.9% | 64.9% |
Source: Census 2011
Additional reading:
https://africacheck.org/spot-check/south-africas-youth-unemployment-rate-56-tweet-claimed/
https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-unemployment-statistics-in-south-africa-explained/
Add new comment