Google, Reserve Bank, Investec and Sars rated SA's best places to work

The SA Reserve Bank heads the list of the employers business students view as most attractive to work for.

The central bank was followed by revenue service Sars, Investec, Deloitte and Transnet in the top five.

This is contained in a survey by research and advisory firm Universum SA, which revealed SA's most attractive employers for 2019.

For the second year in a row, Google remained the most attractive employer for professionals. It was followed by Investec, Discovery, Coca-Cola and AB Inbev.

This year, nearly 23,000 working professionals and 40,000 students participated in the survey to share their opinions and views on career goals and ideal employers.

The survey found that students and professionals prioritised security and stability from employers.

"Security in this case does not mean an environment where they are wanting a job for life.

"This group of nearly 70,000 South Africans were asking themselves whether the employers they work for have what it takes to survive the current tough economic conditions," Universum SA country manager Keshia Serage said.

The survey also found that SA companies struggled to retain their employers.

It found that over half of young South Africans were unhappy in their jobs and were looking to change employers within the next 12 months.

Serage said this spoke to a greater need to focus on how employers engage talented people, as many employees were changing jobs within the first two years of employment.

"The implications of this are that the employer carries the training and development costs to the benefit of other organisations," Serage said.

The survey found that business and commerce students ranked the need to be entrepreneurial, innovative or creative at work on top of the list of important attributes.

These overtook the desire to have an international career.

Serage said these findings were good for local employers, considering there was evidence of more and more professionals emigrating than ever before, particularly young professionals.