eBusiness Weekly
Kudzanai Sharara and Enacy Mapakame
Zimbabwean employers hired significantly more marketing people in the first quarter of the year 2018, according to recruitment agencies who spoke to Business Weekly.
According to Victor Mangwanya, a business analyst with CV People Africa, most sectors recruited an increased number of employees in the first quarter of 2018 against the numbers recruited prior year comparative.
“Save for IT, all the other sectors recorded significant increase in terms of vacancies received from clients, most notable being the sales and marketing industry,” said Mangwanya.
He noted that the increase in vacancies for marketing personnel is highly indicative of recruiter perception that business seems to be more viable or will be more viable in the near future.
Mangwanya said companies were recruiting marketing personnel as there is now need to “make effort to advertise and gain reputation as well as get a considerable share of the (potential) market.”
According to information provided by CV People Africa (CVPA), the number of vacant jobs in the marketing/sales category (that came through CVPA) increased by 157 percent to 72 in 2017 from 28 prior year comparative.
However, the highest number of vacancies that came through CVPA were in the accountancy and finance field at 78 up 44 percent from 54 vacancies last year.
Administration and secretarial personnel were also in demand and recorded a 62 percent increase.
“Administration and accountancy are normal functional entities of every organisation and thus the increases may be an effort to ensure proper structures are in place to handle day to day running of business,” he said.
Mangwanya noted that most of the recruiting organisations were not new but had decided to position themselves for anticipated business.
“About 90 percent of the recruiting organisations are not new but are clients that had not been recruiting for some time. However due to renewed optimism in the market and economy, they have decided to position themselves for anticipated business,” said Mangwanya.
Surprisingly CVPA recorded a decline in the number of IT related recruits down 43 percent to 12. This comes at a time the world is changing towards ICT related systems and functions. This might however not be an industry wide phenomenon.
Another recruiting agency, Industrial Psychology Consultants (IPC), which categorised employment vacancies by sector said the banking sector had recruited more personnel than any other industry in the first quarter of the year.
“The banking sector led, accounting for 16 percent of the recruited personnel in the first quarter of 2018, followed by the manufacturing and assembly sector with 13 percent.
Mining, which has dominated the news with new investment and expansion projects coming through, came third accounting for 11 percent of the vacancies that came through IPC.
The bulk of the mining job vacancies came through in March with the sector accounting for 47 percent of the vacant jobs that came through IPC.
In 2017, the IPC report showed that the manufacturing sector hired more employees than any other, followed by the aviation, finance and retail sector.
Demand for jobs is also very high with recruiting agencies receiving increased job inquiries.
Colin Roberts, Managing Director of The Valcol Group said his agency has been overwhelmed with inquiries from the Diaspora, since October 2017 and this continues today.
“Over the past week alone we received 150 new CVs for the mining sector. The Mining sector is perceived to be a growth area, and the demand for skills may eventually outstrip supply in the years ahead.
