Job market welcomes graduates, but historical hurdles remain

University graduates have a distinct advantage in South Africa's competitive labour market. Their unemployment rate is low compared to non-graduates, and even those who battle to find employment generally, do so within a shorter time than those with no tertiary degree.

However, Africans, women and those who studied at historically black universities still have the greatest difficulty finding employment.

Such are the conclusions of a survey by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of 2 672 university graduates who obtained their first degree between 1990 and 1998.

Ms Percy Moleke, chief researcher in the HSRC's Employment and Economic Policy Research Programme (EEPR), says the study indicated that 60% of graduates found employment immediately after qualifying, while 93,8% do so within a year. A further breakdown of those graduates who didn't find jobs immediately is provided in the graphic below. It shows that 28% found a job within 6 months, 6% between 7 -12 months and about 6% took more that a year to find employment.

Period before finding employment

Graduates in medical science had the highest success rate in finding employment (79%) followed by engineering graduates (77%). However, not all professional degrees guarantee a job — law graduates, for instance, had an employment rate of only 49,6%. Graduates in humanities and the arts had the highest unemployment rate. Table 1 illustrates this point.

Table 1: Period before finding employment by field of study

The study also revealed differences along racial lines. About 70.0% of white graduates found employment immediately, compared with 43,0% of Africans, 42,2% of coloureds and 47,6% of Asians. A higher proportion of graduates from historically black universities (65,4%) experienced periods of unemployment compared to graduates from historically white universities (34,6%). Of those surveyed, 50,9% found their first job in the public sector, 46,8% in the private sector and 2,4% were self-employed.

Moleke says affirmative action does not seem to be making a difference in the private sector. Restructuring the public sector will likely result in fewer employment prospects for African graduates, with serious implications for improving the economic and social well being of this group, which has been hit hardest by the economic inequities of the past.

On the issue of mobility, the survey found that about 56% of graduates had changed jobs since entering the labour market, with just over half changing jobs only once. Despite popular perceptions that recent African graduates are ‘job hopping’ in pursuit of better salaries, 61,8% were in their first job, compared with 38,1% white graduates and 35,8% Asian graduates.

What influences mobility? Moleke says promotion to a higher job level was the main incentive for 30% of respondents to move jobs, whereas only 20% cited higher earnings.

The survey highlighted the lack of relevant information on the country's labour market available to matriculants contemplating careers. Many students enrolled at university with no idea about job prospects in different sectors. Little career guidance is available to potential university students to help inform their decision on a field of study, as a result of which many career choices are based on subjective factors, such as a role model in a student's family or community.

‘Surveys such as this, done every year or two or even three, can provide pointers for students about which university courses will give them the best chances in the labour market,’ says Moleke. ‘It's important to keep the database current.’