Joburg offers four times as many jobs as Pretoria, Cape Town second. Job availability in South Africa is on the rise at the start of 2016, according to the latest research from job search site Adzuna. Jobseekers should head to cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town Metro and Tshwane where there are more vacancies open to prospective candidates. Chatsworth is officially the hardest place in South Africa to find work, with the fewest available vacancies, with Zululand currently offering the lowest average advertised salaries.

The top 50 cities in South Africa were ranked by comparing the job vacancies in Adzuna’s comprehensive search index of over 110,000 live jobs and advertised salaries in each city in April 2016. Adzuna also analysed the distribution of job titles and categories to determine which jobs are in hottest demand in each city or province.

Best cities to find a job - Johannesburg, Cape Town (Metro) and Tshwane top the list of easiest places to find a job in the country. No surprises, although many mining areas in the northern parts of South Africa are especially interesting as the salaries proportionate to the amount of jobs available are much higher than general. The North-West Province, for example, won the rank of first for the highest salary average, pushed up by mining salaries on a lower base than the more populated areas.

Worst cities to find a job – Chatsworth and Kuruman (Ga-Segonyana district) are the hardest areas in SA to find a job with just 11 vacancies currently being advertised, closely followed by Lichtenberg, Faerie Glen, Meyerton and Blouberg (Limpopo) to round out the worst 6 areas. Unsurprisingly, availability for jobs in the capital Tshawne is booming with 6,191 roles available.

Employers are loosening the purse strings - Average salaries in a number of cities are rising, which may reflect a deeper need to attract rarer skills, as well as line up with the current inflation figures. South Africans saw a 6% rise in salaries offered for the same positions over the first quarter of 2016.

Sector Hot Spots - IT and Engineering are the top hiring sectors nationally with over 10,000 jobs advertised currently. The greatest growth in job stock can be seen in the technical industries, boasting over 40,000 job opportunities between them.

“South Africa is facing some tough economic times, due to a number of global pressures as well as local events” says Jesse Green, Country Manager for Adzuna in South Africa. “This can be seen in the rise in salaries and the amount of positions, as companies vie for talent and attract skills with much needed higher wages. The data also reflects the Reserve Bank’s recent decisions to increase the interest rate.”