Growth in economic activity in the informal sector is rising in South Africa while official employment is under pressure.

This trend in South Africa’s labour market environment is highlighted in the latest monthly Adcorp Employment Index, released in Johannesburg this morning, which has tracked employment trends for the month of September 2011.

Loane Sharp, Adcorp Labour Market Analyst, says: “The size of the informal job sector has peaked at almost half that of officially recorded employment in South Africa. In September alone, this sector grew at an annual rate of 7.7%.” (more…)

There are few worse feelings for a manager than when a valued employee announces he or she is leaving. Last month we chatted about how to spot signs of discontent, now what can we do if they are there?

Luckily – in most cases – employee resignation is a process, not an event, so we have time to address the situation. The best news for anyone charged with leading people: we can interrupt the disengagement process and salvage key talent at critical, predictable points along the decision path to departure. (more…)

If you are CA and have been actively seeking employment in the recent job market you may have been feeling somewhat frustrated with the shortage of opportunities available to you. Have you found this? I would love to hear about your latest experiences in the job market especially over this past year or so.

For us, as recruiters, we have definitely experienced a shortage of opportunities for new CA’s and ones with 1 to 2 years post qualifying experience. This shortage has been emphasized by the definite increase of CA’s in the market place. We have found the market to be saturated with recently qualified CA’s – largely due to a limited number of international opportunities coupled with many of the audit firms decision not to retain as many CA’s as previous years. This has left us with an over-supply of recently qualified CA and a limited number of positions, which I am sure you agree has caused much frustration for all. This has also caused a bigger demand for the positions that do become available and a levelling out of salary. For example – the starting salary for a new CA in Cape Town is around R360K however some candidates have been accepting R300K – R340K to get the position – and get their foot in the door. (more…)