South Africa has ranked 11th in ManpowerGroup Solutions’ fourth Contingent Workforce Index (CWI), with a CWI of 2.45, up 0.11 point from last year. Regionally, South Africa came in fourth.
The CWI tracks the relative ease of sourcing, hiring and retaining contingent workforce in 75 countries. In the new report, New Zealand leads for the second consecutive year, demonstrating an optimal environment for use of contingent labor: Availability, Cost Efficiency, Regulation and Productivity.
Singapore (second), the Philippines (third), Israel (fourth) and India (fifth) moved to the top of the leaderboard in 2016. The US and Canada fell from the top five global markets, dropping to sixth and seventh from second and third, respectively.
“The difficulties faced by the South African labour market continue to include high unemployment, a shortage of skilled workers and a rising number of socio-economic challenges,” says Lyndy van den Barselaar, MD of Manpower South Africa. “Despite this, the country has managed a slow and steady recovery to remain within the top 25 over the past two years.
“It is imperative that national and provincial government continues to support employment through efforts including skills training, and support for small-, medium- and macro-enterprises, in order to maintain growth in the job market and assist in bridging the skills gap.
“Support for the private sector, paired with foreign investment are also important factors contributing to the growth and improvement of South Africa’s job market; which will increase South Africa’s CWI,” she adds.
“Over the past year, we saw a shift in priorities that resulted in a change in the 2016 weighting attributed to workforce size,” says Kate Donovan, senior vice-president of ManpowerGroup Solutions. “Employers are feeling the talent shortage. Availability of contingent workers, as well as skilled labor, is gaining prominence.
“As a result, we saw countries like China and India re-emerge into the top ten markets for availability of talent. ManpowerGroup Solutions uses this tool to advise clients of the best countries in which to expand their operations based on specific criteria related to the workforce. The volatility across global labor markets makes this tool more valuable than ever.”
“Compared to last year, the 2016 CWI allows for a greater influence of skilled contingent workforce availability when it comes to determining locations for growing business,” says Raleen Gagnon, director of market intelligence for ManpowerGroup Solutions. “Weighting of specific metrics is adjusted annually to highlight the most influential factors when considering new markets for contingent labor opportunities. The increased focus on Availability has resulted in concessions on lower wage markets, as employers are considering non-wage based labor costs such as benefits and taxes, due to their increasing impact on the total cost of labour.”
Regional ranking include:
* APAC: The greatest shift in the APAC region is the movement of Singapore, the Philippines and India back into the top five in 2016. New Zealand ranks highest of all countries for Regulation of contingent workforce engagement practices, including geopolitical factors, holding its top ranked position in both the region and globally for the second year in a row. Hong Kong also appears in the top five.
* Americas: The United States and Canada hold the top two positions in the Americas region for the third consecutive year. The US has a very slight lead over Canada due to a fall in Canada’s Availability ranking based on the higher weighting in 2016. Columbia, Mexico and Puerto Rico also join the top five for the region.
* EMEA: Israel maintains its top ranking in the EMEA region in 2016, moving up from fourth in 2014. Despite the change in Availability rankings, Israel remains in the lead overall ahead of Ireland, the UK and South Africa. Both South Africa and Turkey advance to the top five nations for 2016, with high marks in Productivity.