Johannesburg has the largest working-age population of any South African metro. It has 4.3-million people aged 15 to 64. Yet fewer than half (45.2%) of them have jobs, placing the city behind Cape Town (56.5%), eThekwini (45.9%) and Buffalo City (45.6%) among South Africa’s metros on the labour absorption rate, which measures the share of the working-age population that is employed, according to the latest Statistics South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey (Q1 2026).

A decade ago, Johannesburg had the highest employment-to-population ratio at 56.3% in 2015, according to Statistics South Africa data, but it has dropped in part because of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the contraction of labour-intensive industries in mining and construction between 2014 and 2024. The City of Johannesburg’s mayoral committee, in its 2026/27 draft economic development business plan, said Johannesburg proposed to address this by giving assistance to struggling industries and attracting investments to improve infrastructure, stimulate growth and upskill the workforce for growing industries like finance.

But the city has a long way to go before more than one in two residents of working age have a job.

Produced in partnership with Our City News.