KwaZulu-Natal is the lowest-paying province in South Africa, while salaries in the other eight provinces are relatively competitive.

This was indicated in staffing solutions company Quest’s ‘Salary Survey & Staffing Trends 2014’ report, which was launched in Johannesburg last month.

The survey covers 38 key job functions in the majority of companies, as well as several additional industry-specific job functions.

Quest CEO Kay Vittee says she hopes recruiters, management, employees and job-seekers will find this report useful as a reference tool to benchmark white-collar salary levels across the country.

“Whether you are a business owner starting or expanding your business, or a job seeker looking for the ideal company to work for – to make good business, financial or career decisions, there is critical information that you need to know.

“Wouldn’t it be useful to know the average salary for a specific position in a particular industry, by province or by differentiating between levels of experience and temporary or permanent employment?” she asks.

The survey found that salaries in KwaZulu-Natal are 15.6% lower than the national median. However, the salaries of employees with less than five years’ experience in Gauteng were found to be 7.9% higher than the national median.

According to Statistics South Africa, Gauteng contributes about 35% to the economic output of the country.

Vittee says this is justified by another key survey finding regarding the concentration of business head offices in Gauteng and the number of staff required to run them.

The survey respondents from Gauteng comprised 56.5% of the total responses received in the general survey, making Gauteng the most dominant province in the white-collar environment.

In terms of temporary staff, the salaries of the white-collar industrial and manufacturing industries are the highest.

At least 64.4% of the survey respondent companies employ temporary or contract staff in addition to their permanent staff.

The survey further indicated that, while the use of temporary staff was growing in South Africa, their pay levels differ in terms of industries, provinces, positions and levels of experience.

Quest identified 22 key findings in recruitment trends, some of which included the increasing use of managed service providers, the recruitment process outsourcing, or RPO. staffing model and an increase in the bring-your-own-device-to-work trend.

Further, an increase in remote working has resulted in the emerging trend of made-to-order employment relationships.

Social media has become a new candidate-sourcing platform – a trend that is likely to increase.

The personal branding of candidates is also likely to play a role in their being appointed by companies, with organisations starting to identify hundreds of top performers in various industries who are not currently looking for a job using external big data.

An emerging future trend appears to be employers valuing candidates’ experience more than their academic excellence, the survey found.