CareerJunction recently published its up-to-date jobs index, complete with some interesting insight into which skills are the most in-demand in South Africa.

They found that jobseekers with experience in software development, middle/department management, and sales consulting stood a good chance of finding a job due to a shortage of skills in these areas.

Their findings seem to correlate with a recent report by online job aggregator Adzuna, who looked into the number of job titles available online and compared them with the skills required to do said jobs.

Business Insider SA spoke to Adzuna South Africa country manager Jesse Green, who said that the most in-demand jobs, with the average salary coming in at roughly R500 000 per year, were as follows:

1. Financial Manager – R533 347
2. Accountant – R430 563
3. Recruiter – R410 926
4. PHP Developer – R434 652
5. Java Developer – R569 669

CareerJunction’s report noted that Information Technology jobs are in high demand in South Africa. Green notes that 65% of the rarest skills in the country fall under the tech industry umbrella.

That means that while tech skills are in short supply, you’re still going to face some competition if you’re job hunting.

A competitive salary is what often sets the most sought after jobs apart from the competition. According to the latest stats from Salary Explorer, salaries in South Africa range from a minimum average of R4 250 per month to a maximum average of R139 000 per month:

Source: Salary Explorer

Adzuna made a list of the jobs with the highest-paid average salary so that you can make better life choices if you’re picking a degree, and if money is important to you:

1. Surveyor – R 583 242
2. Mechanical engineer – R579 950
3. Java developer – R 569 669
4. Software engineer – R561 925
5. Engineer – R561 064
6. IT manager – R546 876
7. Technologist – R544 017
8. Pharmacist – R543 187
9. Financial manager – R533 347
10. Analyst – R518 638

If you’re looking to upskill or deciding which degree you want to pursue when you go to university, you now know what you need to do to break even on half a million a year.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills provide the best opportunities for job stability.

The rest of us have become really good at budgeting.

[source:businessinsider&salaryexplorer]