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Business Times reports that job prospects are looking up for those in IT, logistics and finance, but that's cold comfort for the millions of South Africans who remain unemployed.
Data released last week by StatsSA showed that the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter last year rose to 35.3%. the worst rate recorded since the start of the quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) in 2008. According to the CareerJunction “Employment Insights Report” released last week, four out of 10 South Africans between the ages of 25 and 34 are out of work and just over 60% of those aged between 15 and 24 are unemployed. Roy Douglas of AdvTech said the group's recruitment division in SA had seen a demand for skills in the IT, finance and logistics sectors. “Markets are tough, economic performances are suboptimal and there certainly is not much in job creation. However, we tend to operate in the higher-level skills employment area, IT and finance in particular, and quite often even if the economy isn’t performing ... people still require finance and IT skills,” he noted. Workforce, which focuses largely on blue collar workers, has seen demand in jobs in agriculture, call centres and mining. The CareerJunction report said hiring activity over the past three years showed the IT sector appeared to have recovered. “When looking into youth employment trends, it is clear that many young South Africans find employment within admin, office & support roles as well as various roles within sales,” it indicated. Economist Dawie Roodt commented: “An important point to make is that SA's growth is taking place in the service part of the economy, that's where economies are growing. That is where we are growing as well. But people that have skills are few.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thabiso Mochiko at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Alarm as jobless rate rises again and could rise even further this year, at City Press (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page