CareerJunction, an online recruitment unit belonging to media group Avusa, revealed on Thursday that there was higher job search activity among professionals, while demand for labour had decreased.
The company noted that this suggested that career seekers faced tougher competition in the online job market.
According to the new CareerJunction Index (CJI), the index dropped to 86.19 during January 2011, signalling easing recruitment conditions. In December the index was over 115.
CareerJunction, which provides an online service to recruiters and job seekers, said the index was the first index of its kind that directly monitored the online labour market in SA by examining supply and demand trends across all industries.
If the index is greater than 100, this means that there are more job opportunities for potential career seekers, less potential career seekers per job advert and recruitment is difficult, due to less potential career seekers per job advert.
But a score of less than 100 indicates less job opportunities for potential career seekers, more potential career seekers per job advert, and recruitment is less difficult.
If the index is at 100 this suggests there are no changes regarding the potential career seekers per job advert ratio, meaning supply and demand are following the same trend.
CareerJunction sources its index data from its flagship website, which covers more than 800 recruiters that advertise their vacant positions to more than 1.6 million career seekers.
“With the internet becoming an increasingly popular method of finding a job and sourcing candidates for positions, the CareerJunction Index provides HR professionals and recruitment agencies with valuable insights into online labour trends in SA,” CareerJunction said.
“Some of the biggest concerns at the moment include an imbalance of labour supply and demand across certain occupational fields, job types as well as across skill level categories in these professions,” CareerJunction said.
“The imbalance of supply and demand for skilled professionals depicts a skills gap and is a major concern, particularly within certain occupational fields where recruiters are struggling to find suitable talent and, in some cases, businesses are forced to participate in nationwide skills programmes in order to train and up-skill less experienced professionals,” it said. - I-Net Bridge