The province is a summer-rainfall region with high rainfall figures along the coast, but becoming gradually drier behind the mountain ranges into the Great Karoo. The metropolitan economies of Port Elizabeth and East London are based primarily on manufacturing, the most important being motor manufacturing. The unemployment situation in the province has long been among the worst in South Africa. It has also been at the bottom of the scale in terms of human resource development. The incidence of migrant labor has a severe effect.
Men leave to seek employment, while women are left with all the responsibility at home.
There are still vast underutilised capacities for development in the Eastern Cape, most of all the human capacities, and its tourism potential.