Universum 2012 rankings reveals insights into youth employment sector

Universum's student and professionals' surveys are the most extensive in the country and provide essential information for understanding and improving recruitment of students and professionals within an ever changing economic environment.

The annual rankings and associated trend reports are important indicators of employment trends, young people's expectations for the future, as well as the current skills gap within the South African job sector.

The research additionally informs the Universum IDEAL Employer rankings, which measure an organisation's level of employer attractiveness in comparison with other competing employers. Some of the insights from the 2012 research are as follows.

Government departments and parastatals dominate but not with high achievers

In recent years, government departments and parastatals have increased in popularity as IDEAL Employers, as has government as a preferred industry after graduation. "This is a global trend we are seeing in a number of other markets" says Jenali Skuse, Research Manager at Universum, "in uncertain economic times, students tend towards government as it is an employer associated with stability and job security".

However, of those respondents who are classified as "high achievers", government is not as popular, with the prestigious companies in the private sector being most popular with this group.

Women still expect and earn less

Although gender income equality is a priority on the transformation agendas of many companies, our research shows that women both expect to earn less, and do earn less at all levels. Female students expect on average 16,5% less than male students in their first job after graduation and female professionals at all levels consistently earn less than their male counterparts.

Engineering transformed in terms of race, but not in terms of gender

Engineering is still a male dominated profession and appears that it will be for a number of years to come. Of the student respondents who chose Engineering as their main field of study, only 27% were female. In terms of race however, there does appear to be transformation in the engineering area of study with 70% of respondents identifying themselves as black while 17% identify themselves as white.

Black students have highest salary expectations

White students have the lowest salary expectations, expecting to earn R224,039 per annum in their first job after graduation, followed by Indian and Asian students, R238,623 per annum. Black students have the highest salary expectations, expecting R250,958 per annum in their first job.

"Students are well aware of the challenges faced when trying to find a job, and white students tend to perceive themselves as less likely to be hired as a result of the BBEEE codes, which is reflected in their salary expectations", says Jenali Skuse, Research Manager at Universum.

GenY wants it, and they want it now

Professional training and development is the most attractive attribute of employer attractiveness for all students, irrelevant of their area of study. "Gen Y students are ambitious and impatient, as the generation of the information era they want to learn fast, advance fast and become leaders fast", explains Skuse.

Decrease in popularity of mining sector

In general there has been a decrease in popularity of mining houses (except Arcelor Mittal and Anglo American) for engineering students despite mining being the third most popular preferred industry for the group. "With all the protest action and debate over the nationalisation of mines there is little surprise in the decrease in the popularity of the mining companies" says Skuse, "what is surprising is that mining as an industry is still so popular, however this is a trend we expect to see vast changes in in the upcoming survey".

About Universum Global M

Universum is the global leader in employer branding with the groups head offices being located in Stockholm, Sweden with regional head offices in New York (Americas), Johannesburg (Africa), Basel (Europe) and Singapore (Asia). Universum is present in 12 locations on 5 continents.

Universum serves more than 1,200 clients globally, including the majority of Fortune 100 companies

On the research front, Universum surveys over 400,000 students and professionals worldwide and publishes more than 150 career publications in 10 countries.

In addition, Universum has 10 career-driven web-sites with 1.5 million visitors/month

About Universum South Africa

Universum is South Africa's top research-based employer branding specialist assisting the country's top employers to attract and retain the best talent with research, strategic consulting and media solutions.

The foundation of Universum's Employer Branding Model is research, which is why there is an investment in extensive resources to conduct the three surveys each year.

The student and professionals' surveys are by far the biggest in the country eliciting responses from over 16 000 students, 9 000 professionals and 500 MBAs. They provide essential information for understanding and improving recruitment and retention.

The research additionally allows for the presentation of the Universum IDEAL Employer rankings, which measures an organisation's level of employer attractiveness in comparison with other competing employers.