Cape Town - Job seekers in the Western Cape have better prospects of finding employment in the first quarter of next year than those in the rest of the country, according to the ManpowerGroup’s latest Employment Outlook Survey.
The report found that 15% of employers expect to hire more staff in the first three months of 2018; 8% expect to shed staff; and 75% forecast that their staff levels will not change.
Lyndy van den Barselaar, managing director of ManpowerGroup South Africa, said the economy continued to contend with uncertainty, low business and consumer confidence, and a fluctuating currency.
“Therefore, it comes as no surprise that employers remain conservative in their spending and hiring patterns. That being said, the beginning of the year is often when businesses revisit their staffing strategies and take on new hires, which could account for the small increase of 1% in the seasonally adjusted net employment outlook.”
She said payrolls were forecast to grow in four of the five regions in the first quarter, with employers in the Western Cape reporting the strongest hiring intentions, with a net employment outlook of 10%.
Some hiring opportunities were anticipated in KwaZulu-Natal, with a net em-
ployment outlook of 6%. Employers in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng reported modest hiring plans, with a net employment outlook of 5%.
“The Western Cape continues to attract visitors and tourists in the first few months of the year as our summer reaches its peak. This could continue to have a positive effect on hiring intentions among the province’s employers,” Van den Barselaar said.
Jason Muscat, a senior economic analyst at First National Bank, said the Third Quarter Employment Survey was worse than expected, showing that the economy had shed 31000 jobs in the quarter, a decrease of 0.9% year-on-year.
Muscat said the biggest contributor to the fall was the community services sector, which lost 106000 jobs over the past year.
“We believe this ongoing trend reflects efforts to reduce the public sector headcount, but this was significantly offset by public sector wage growth, which expanded 7.7% year-on-year for community services' employees and 10.1% at electricity utilities, well ahead of the quarterly inflation rate.
“The ongoing strain in the manufacturing and construction sectors was evident in the gross-earnings increase, which were well below the rate of inflation (3.4% and 0.2% year-on-year, respectively).
"The employment rate is likely to remain flat over the forecast horizon given the low levels of investment, confidence and economic growth,” said Muscat.