What are the most attractive industries in South Africa?
Historically, high unemployment rates and an extremely competitive labour market have been prominent features of the South African economy. The official unemployment rate, according to Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the second quarter of 2012, is 24.9% - which is significant.
However, what is more concerning is that 70.7% of the unemployed in South Africa are youths below the age of 35, as can be seen in figure 1.
Figure 1: Number of unemployed per age group
*Source: Stats SA QLFS 2nd Quarter 2012
The first two categories (red) typically include new school leavers and new graduates from tertiary and further education institutions. Against this, it is clear that competition for jobs within these age groups is the highest, which means that top candidates would be looking to acquire jobs within the most attractive industries - but which industries are the most attractive?
Table 1 illustrates which jobs are the most sought after. The numbers are calculated in terms of the number of applicants per advertised job.
Table 1: Number of applicants per advertised job
*Source: Career Junction Index August 2012
The higher the number of applicants per job, the higher the supply of those skills is relative to the number of vacancies available. This can also be interpreted as the job categories, which experience the highest number of applicants per advertised vacancy, are relatively scarce.
This sort of information is valuable to school leavers, tertiary and further education students as it gives them an indication of where they can pursue a career of their choice most effectively. Another important factor which often motivates young people to pick a particular career is the salary they can expect to earn from that particular career choice.
Table 2 indicates the compa-ratio* of the starting salary a new graduate can expect to earn per job family. The secretarial job family has been used as the base since it is the job family which experiences the lowest starting salary for graduates.
According to the 21st Century Graduate Remuneration Survey, jobs within the technical and specialist job family (such as engineers) offer a premium starting salary to those who acquire the necessary qualification. There are few surprises in terms of the rank of these job families apart from, perhaps, the financial and accounting job family. However, this is because jobs in this field are relatively freely available as illustrated in table 1.
Performing the same sort of analysis as in table 2, but using academic qualifications rather than job families, we see the results in table 3 below.
Table 3 indicates the compa-ratios of the median salary offered to new graduates based on their qualification using the Bachelor of Arts (BA) qualification as the base as it pays the least in this sample.
Once again, there are few surprises about the rank of these qualifications, with:
- BAs generally being followed by;
- B.Coms (undergraduate);
- BTechs;
- BScs; and
- B.Coms (postgraduate).
These compa-ratios indicate the willingness of employers to pay a premium for certain skills (increasing as you move down Table 3) which can often serve as a motivating factor when a youth makes a choice about which career path to pursue.
So where is our youth most likely to find jobs?
The most attractive careers for a new graduate to pursue are, based on the availability of jobs and the comparative starting salary in relation to other graduates, are:
- Engineering and technical;
- Marketing;
- Information technology;
- Compliance and risk; and
- Specialised finance jobs.
The least attractive industries to other new graduates include:
- Arts and entertainment;
- Basic (undergraduate);
- Finance; and
- Secretarial jobs.
* A compa-ratio is a formula commonly used by compensation professionals to assess how competitive an employee’s pay level is.
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Chris Blair is the CEO of 21st Century Pay Solutions Group (Pty) Ltd. He has a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering from Wits University. He has been endorsed for his skills in organisational design, performance management, talent management, organisational development, HR consulting, change management, employee engagement, remuneration and leadership development. Contact him on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . |
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Author: Bryden Morton, B.Com (Hons) Economics, Data Analyst – This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . |
