Shake-up in SA job market

Bloemfontein  - Since last year there has been a marked increase in recruitment activity to fill vacant posts.

Up to 77% of the companies participating in a recent survey are currently appointing staff, while 34% intend to fill more than 100 positions during the next financial year.

This, the second such survey, was conducted by SA Recruiters Network, an online network environment for recruitment and human-resource professionals.

More than 213 participants from the South African corporate human resources sector, as well as recruitment agencies, participated in the survey this year.

Gillian Meier, chief executive of Jobs.co.za and founder of Recruiters Network, said the survey showed that South African companies advertised their vacant posts in different ways in order to extract the best value from their staff advertising budgets.

Most companies (65%) made use of their internal recruitment departments, but 84.4% also used recruitment agencies. Up to 41% of the agencies said they had reduced their charges for successful placements in the aftermath of the recession.

The use of social media to find suitable applicants was becoming more popular and, according to the survey, had increased by 32%. The most popular website appeared to be LinkedIn.

Newspapers were still a popular medium for advertising vacant positions and 64% of the companies and agencies continued to use them.

But agencies believed that print media produced the lowest returns for their investment.

There has also been a 25% increase in advertising positions on databases (“job boards”).

-    Sake24

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