Recruitment practices

Job market in South Africa

South Africa has high unemployment, measured at 28.18% in 2019. It has risen since the economic crisis in 2008, although is lower than it was at the start of the 21st century when it was regularly above 30%.

According to the World Bank, South Africa has the worst unemployment in the sub-Saharan African region which had an average of 6.2% unemployment in 2019.

It can be tough to get work as a migrant in South Africa unless you have specific skills and qualifications needed in the country. Semi-skilled and unskilled jobs are hard to come by and employers prefer to recruit from the pool of unemployed locals. Most working-age expats moving to South Africa tend to have a job offer first before relocating.

However, there are skills shortages in South Africa in certain sectors so it’s worth keeping an eye out for opportunities if you are skilled in any of the following areas identified as shortage in 2019:

• advanced ICT
• engineering
• artisan
• executive level finance
• healthcare
• executive managerial
• specialist & academic
• executive level mining
• risk management
• languages

Job salaries in South Africa

From 1 March 2020, theSouth African minimum wage increases by 3.8% to R20.76 (approx. €1.05) an hour. This is lower for farm workers (R18.68), domestic workers (R15.57) and workers employed on expanded public works programs (R11.42).

How to find jobs in South Africa

By law, all jobs in South Africa must be advertised nationally and will only be opened up to international applicants if a suitable South African citizen isn’t available to do the job. However, in practice many jobs are filled by of mouth, networking or individuals sending speculative applications to companies and organisations.