According to Prodyn Resource Consultants, the most sought-after skills are those of Web developers and network installation engineers. Voice systems engineers, security officers and project managers complete the list.
All five listings fall in the R19 000 to R42 000 monthly salary bracket.
FCA Recruitment has a top five list that`s developer hungry for .Net, ASP, JAVA and J2EE skills. Slightly lower on the earning scale, these range from R15 000 to R30 000 per month.
Airborne Recruitment says program managers top their list, while senior project managers come a close second, followed by C#.Net developers, Biztalk consultants and Microsoft SQL Server DBA specialists.
There are IT skills that are good to have, but are so specialised that the demand is not as great. SA has only recently jumped on the voice over the Internet protocol (VOIP) bandwagon and Prodyn recognises that VOIP skills are not yet widely sought after in the current market. The same goes for PABX specialists.
Contradicting FCA Recruitment and Airborne Recruitment`s experiences, Prodyn says that .NET skills are difficult to place in the current market.
Airborne Recruitment says that Delphi, C++ and legacy developers are being shunned by the industry.
New blood
[CHART]But are the job seekers unemployed or simply looking for better opportunities from the security of a current job? Retrenchment figures are contrasting at the respective agencies, with Prodyn saying it has no retrenched candidates on its books and Airborne estimating only 1% have been retrenched, while FCA says 50% of its candidate have been unlucky.
Money is a top deciding factor for candidates who are currently employed or contracted but looking for a new position. A more suitable environment or company culture also ranked high, followed by the search for better benefits, including flexible working hours or a work from home option.
Also on the list was the need for a greater challenge and responsibility, which almost a quarter of survey respondents cited as a winning reason for loving their jobs.
Employment security and a more reputable or promising employer tied up the loose ends.
It isn`t all fun and games for agencies trying to please potential employers on the one hand and potential employees on the other.
Just as employers list many requirements, so do potential employees.
One of the biggest challenges for recruiters is that there are too many low-calibre candidates with not enough experience.
FCA Recruitment says that testing applicants` skills and evaluating what role they have played in previous projects, either a participation or leading role, is a major challenge.
Airborne Recruitment simply says that "finding the right people" to meet potential employers` needs is difficult.
Collectively, the agencies identified emerging trends in the IT market, such as an increasing demand for skills in VOIP and various software development languages.
Those applicants seeking permanent positions are preferred to high-priced contractors or costly outsource options, says FCA, while Airborne contests this, finding that "clients are more open to flexible sourcing models than they were a year ago".
No responding agency sourced candidates for overseas markets.
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