There is a surge of both online job seekers and advertised vacancies in the early months of each new year as companies and individuals get to grips with their 2017 goals. Now that the festive haze has well and truly worn off, previous jobs are being re-evaluated causing a huge amount of change and fierce competition. Thanks to our bird’s eye view of South Africa’s employment market, research by Adzuna reveals that the first quarter in 2017 will still see high demand for unique skills that dominated much of 2016.
The most highly sought after skills are engineering, programming and financial skills. These rare and specialised skills saw advertised salaries rise over the past few months while other sectors experienced a pay decrease. In addition, professionals such as chefs and receptionists witnessed a pay increase over the festive period due to employers realising higher demand in their own industry.
Vacancies that related to sales saw a considerable drop in advertised salary, however this is likely due to the exclusion of commission pay in salary data. According to the data estate agents in South Africa pocket an average R15,000 per annum salary, whereas in reality many of these professionals earn the largest part of their salary from commissions.
As we head deeper into 2017 many employers are expected to pay top dollar for engineering and developer talent. Java, .Net and PHP developers top the charts for the most sought after skills, with engineering skills not far below. In the pool of more general employment, civil engineer vacancies are advertised with a whopping average salary of over R600,000, while in the more specific skills industry, C-suite executives, programme directors, certain lawyers and energy engineers are offering salaries of over R1,000,000 per annum.
Project management is the most in demand skill across all industries. Candidates with a wealth of experience and a relevant certificate/qualification or two in managing projects are set to be among the most employable regardless of the economic situation in South Africa.
Our advice to job seekers in early 2017 is to upskill themselves! Enrol in an online course or take evening classes to obtain new qualifications and skills to stay competitive for current and prospective employers.