STEM skills top job demand list

Research from Adzuna South Africa shows that science, technology, engineering and mathematics are still the best skills to have to ensure a good job, stable career and better-than-average salary.

Using Adzuna’s advanced search function on exact words in job listing business titles, the top titles being advertised for in South Africa were generated. While “manager” does not declare any exact specialty except for management skills, it is clear that the focus in SA is currently on technical skills, followed by consultants, financial and administrative vacancies.

Looking at salaries for the job listings that included them, engineers and programmers/developers pave the way, with analyst positions also showing a higher average than most.

The ten most prolific job titles currently being recruited for on Adzuna.co.za are:

Other than Java, much needed programming and development skills are PHP and the Microsoft suite of languages, including .Net and C#. Mobile developer skills are also on the rise.

With a less focused search, some trends (rather than exact titles) were picked up around skills sought after in the South Africa job market.

The database includes at this point in time:

• 35,748 Developer jobs with an average salary of R475,488
• 21,032 Engineer jobs with an average salary of R529,620
• 18,536 Consultant jobs with an average salary of R425,383
• 17,767 Designer jobs with an average salary of R512,209
• 17,744 Sales jobs with an average salary of R258,912 (3,895 Sales Manager jobs with an average salary of R347,807)
• 17,524 Recruiter jobs with an average salary of R428,237
• 13,247 Administrator jobs with an average salary of R284,699
• 8,527 Project manager jobs with an average salary of R548,411
• 5,084 Analyst jobs with an average salary of R530,840
• 4,910 Accountant jobs with an average salary of R437,422
• 4,258 Java jobs with an average salary of R548,432