Gauteng is the place to be if you want a job – report

Gauteng remains the largest employment hub in South Africa, followed by the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, according to a recent report.

In its latest findings on employment insights, CareerJunction noted although there was a dip in recruitment during July, it had increased by 6% in August.

Year-on-year hiring was up by 3% compared to August last year. The report provided an analysis of the supply and demand trends in the online job market.

Its findings served as a foundation for HR solutions and strategies, to enable businesses and recruitment agencies to focus on relevant occupations when developing their talent attraction.

According to CareerJunction, Gauteng remained the largest employment hub with 54%, followed by the Western Cape (21%) and KwaZulu-Natal (9%), while Limpopo, Northern Cape and Free State were the lowest with 1%.

International job offers remained static at 4%. Anja Bates, CareerJunction’s head of data, said Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KZN hosted large industrial and commercial operations and headquarters of many businesses, with Gauteng the biggest provincial economy with an emphasis on finance, manufacturing, communication, and business services.

“When looking at the job market, professionals in business and management, IT, finance, sales and admin, office and support are in high demand.

While all provinces provide numerous job opportunities across many sectors, Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal frequently boast thousands of vacancies in these sectors.”

Bates said there was a significant increase in solar energy jobs.

“We wouldn’t talk about an explosion of green energy jobs just yet. However, there is a strong trend in green and solar energy jobs growing faster.”

Chief economist at Efficient Group Dawie Roodt said the other provinces were low in terms of recruitment because their economies were much smaller.

The bigger and more sophisticated the economy was, “the easier it is for that economy to provide all resources to its citizens”.

Roodt said the increase in solar jobs was no surprise.

“This is because of the load shedding and the overall lack of electricity that we have been experiencing. Everybody wants to get into solar. There’s a huge demand.

“The drop in IT is of concern because that is where a lot of economic growth is happening.”