Employment outook in South Africa "the best in EMEA region"

South Africa has powered ahead of all European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) countries this year as regards employment prospects, according to the Manpower Survey for the first quarter of 2010.

"The optimism among South African employers is remarkable, especially when compared to other regions," says Lars Forseth, Manpower regional managing director for EMEA. "There is a definite upturn, driven by the traditional finance sector and the domestic banks. It is difficult to predict the pace of the upturn, but I expect a very good 2010 for financial services in South Africa."

The survey shows that employers in the finance, insurance and business services sector in South Africa have a positive outlook for the current quarter (+17%). The most remarkable development is the improvement of +11% from the same quarter in 2009 and the +18% change from the September-December quarter. The survey works on a methodology in which the percentage of employers who say they predict recruitment to decrease is deducted from the percentage who expect hiring activity to increase. The result is the Net Employment Outlook figure, which for South Africa across all sectors is +13%.

The same methodology is used by Grant Thornton in its 2010 International Business Report. The newly released survey paints a less rosy picture than Manpower's but focuses on last year: in 2009 most South African businesses imposed a hiring freeze, with a balance percentage(or net employment outlook) of only 2% increasing staff levels last year, compared to 26% in 2008. "There has been little or no growth in employment numbers in South Africa during 2009," says Leonard Brehm, chairman of Grant Thornton SA. "But it is typical of the adaptability of privately held businesses that they tried to maintain staff levels during the year." In South Africa 51% managed to avoid compulsory redundancies.

However, the worst of the recession is over and companies are "more optimistic about business opportunities in 2010", says Brehm. South African employees seem set for more generous treatment than international counterparts, as 88% of businesses say they will give inflation-related or even higher pay increases in 2010 and only 8% are considering reducing pay, compared to 36% globally. The reason, according to Brehm, is that "in general a shortage of skilled workforce is a concern in South African businesses and private business owners need to incentivise staff more than internationally in order to retain good staff."

Manpower's Forseth agrees: "Lack of skills gap remains the biggest problem for the recruitment sector in South Africa and it can only be solved if expatriates move back."

Source: Manpower