Unemployment grows, but banks are still hiring in South Africa
This week's figures from Statistics SA were predictably grim. Over 250,000 jobs were lost in the first six months of the year, a year-on-year decline of 2.3% in employment not seen since 2000. Manufacturing, mining and the construction sector took the brunt of the cuts, but employment in insurance and financial services also fell by 4.2 in the January to June period.
Despite the slowdown, though, banks are still hiring in many sectors and confidence is still high, recruiters say. "The recession has had a negative effect across the board, but banking and financial services is still a much more lively market than any other sector in South Africa, - says Niteske Marshall, director of Network Recruitment, which specialises in financial recruitment. - The demand is there and a candidate with the right skills will find a job. The jobs most in demand are risk management and compliance across the financial spectrum, business and quantitative analysts and IT security, which is a really growing field."
The London-based recruitment agency Coningham Lee has given the South African market a vote of confidence by opening its first international office in Durban earlier this year. "We have gone from strength to strength, - says director Carly Tantau. - The market is stronger than in London and it is mainly the local banks that are hiring at all levels. There are some back office jobs going, but most of the demand is for middle and front office. Because of the high demand we have also started placing people in IT, which we don't do in the UK." Business is doing so well that Coningham Lee is planning to open two more offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town in the near future.
"South African banks are hiring more than the global investment banks," says Phryne Williams, director of Capital Assignments, a financial services recruitment firm. "Some of the areas of interest that I have seen are trading and research sales, but there is also demand for some specialised banking and risk roles."
