IT is the most sought-after field – Careers24 stats
IT remains the most sought-after field by young, educated South Africans looking for jobs, according to third-quarter Careers24 job market statistics released this week.
The earning capacity in IT is the highest among the most in-demand fields, with an average monthly salary exceeding R61 000. It’s followed by the finance sector, which offers R50 600 on average, and engineering, at an average of R49 800.
Marc Privett, head of product and customer insights at Careers24, says the activity on the platform clearly shows that young, educated and upwardly mobile job seekers are doing more research on the companies they want to work for.
“In fact, one of the more popular employers was viewed more than 150 000 times in the past quarter,” says Privett. “If anything, this shows that the market is slowly changing to one where new job seekers would rather work for a company that suits them.”
The stats show that among the users measured, the gender split among job seekers is fairly even. The average user is most likely to be a black South African (65%), living in Gauteng (45%), with a tertiary qualification (59%), and between 21 and 30 (60%).
Career24’s stats are based on the number of jobs listed, as well as the number of job seekers surveyed. The survey has also noted the trend that the third quarter of the year was an industrious one, as is traditionally the case.
Jobs were viewed a total of 8,2 million times on Careers24 within the quarter and the site signed up more than 100 000 new job seekers.
However, only slightly more than 70 000 new jobs were listed during the same period, showing that the demand for jobs still outweighs those available.
According to Career24, this decline is in line with Statistics South Africa’s findings in its Q2 Quarterly Employment Survey.
The survey results show a decline of 34 000 jobs (or -0.4%) to 9 617 000 for the second quarter of 2017, specifically in the formal non-agricultural sector.
On the recruitment side, when comparing 2016 and 2017’s most in-demand sectors, a few trends were noteworthy.
IT remained the number one field in terms of available jobs, while engineers continue to be in high demand. Sales and finance jobs ranked second and third.
The most in-demand sectors in 2017 are IT, sales – with an average salary of R22 609 – finance, engineering, medical (R34 916), accounting (R39 434) and marketing (R26 008).Career24 listed 10 sectors which showed promising growth in terms of job posts, with finance and academics showing a 57% and 54% growth.
Here are the 10 sectors that showed most growth:
Finance – 57%
Academic – 54%
Call centre – 41%
Management – 41%
Health fitness and beauty – 37%
Sales – 34%
Marketing – 32%
Procurement – 30%
Graduate – 28%
Media – 27%
Client: Careers24
Coverage received in Destiny Connect
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