There are as many as 829 800 unfilled positions in high-skilled occupations in South Africa, human capital group Adcorp said on Tuesday, releasing the latest findings of its latest employment index.

Shortages of the highly skilled were found to exist in senior management, professionals in the medicine, engineering, accounting and law fields, technical occupations requiring artisans and technicians, and occupations in the agriculture industry.

Adcorp calculated that the economy faces a shortage of 432 100 technicians, 216 200 managers and 178 400 professionals. This is in contrast to the 967 600 elementary workers and 247 400 domestic workers in excess of the country’s needs.

The JSE-listed group used data, such as recruitment lead times, applicant/job ratios and job fill rates to determine the number of unfilled skilled positions.

Further South African citizens’ wages in high-skilled occupations have escalated, in inflation-adjusted terms, by 286,4% since 2000.

This is the result of the shortage of high-skilled workers that have been artificially induced by the Immigrations Act, No 13 of 2002, which made it difficult for foreigners to find work in South Africa, Adcorp labour economist Loane Sharp said.

“The most recent amendments to the Immigrations Act, promulgated in April, prohibit the use of immigration agents and quota work permits, both of which have historically been widely used by South African companies seeking foreign skills,” Sharp explained.

Last week, a manufacturing industry lobby group, Manufacturing Circle, expressed concern about South Africa’s skills shortage and said that importing skilled people could be an effective and immediate solution to the problem.

Meanwhile, the long-term employment trend whereby the informal sector had grown faster than the formal sector, continued in April, and was largely driven by small-scale employers opting out of income taxes and labour regulations. South Africa’s informal sector now employed 6,2-million people.

The Adcorp survey pointed to the creation of 2 627 000 employment opportunities in April, with the wholesale and retail trade (2,91%), transport, storage and communication (11,28%), financial intermediation, insurance, real estate and business services (3,74%), and community social and personal services (3,67%) showing positive growth.

Employment in the mining (-7,59%), manufacturing (-1,69%), electricity, gas and water (-13,48%) and construction (-6,65%) sectors showed negative growth compared with March.

South Africa’s official unemployment rate increased to 25% in the first quarter of 2011, from 24% in the final quarter of 2010, according to Statistics South Africa’s  quarterly 'Labour Force Survey', released last week.

The number of unemployed grew by 227 000 to 4,36-million, while 73 000 workers stopped looking for a job in the first three months of the year.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, with only 40,6% of its population, aged between 15 to 64 years, employed.