South Africa: Good news for job seekers

SOME South African employers are optimistic about creating jobs despite the weak state of the economy, a survey showed on Tuesday.

A survey of 750 local employers by global workforce solutions group Manpower showed that employers expected moderate opportunities for job seekers in the third quarter of 2014.

The survey measures employers’ intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce during a particular quarter.

Official figures show that almost 5-million people actively looking for work are unable to find it.

The Manpower employment outlook survey showed that the net employment outlook climbed to 8% in the third quarter — the most optimistic forecast since the third quarter of 2010.

This was four percentage points higher compared with the second quarter and up seven percentage points compared with the third quarter of 2013.

Manpower South Africa MD Lyndy van den Barselaar said the latest survey suggested that employer confidence was improving slightly.

"Net employment outlooks are positive in all industry sectors and in all regions; the last time this happened was in the first quarter of 2009," Ms van den Barselaar said.

She said renewed interest in emerging markets would slowly increase as the global business environment continued to recover. This, she added, would facilitate economic growth and employment in emerging markets.

"However, for this growth to be continued and sustainable, it is important that investor fears are addressed through workable and sustainable initiatives between all economic stakeholders," Ms van den Barselaar said.