The South African lawyers are having a hard time getting their dream jobs. They are struggling to find employment opportunities according to their qualifications. If you intend to become a lawyer in South Africa, refer to the information below.
It states the reasons that can help you reach a decision. You may want to change your decision to pursue law after going through the stats and demographics below.
As per the Most Recent Statistics
The law graduates are still figuring out “lawyering” for them and may realize that legal practice might not be their cup of tea. One of the reasons behind the unemployment is that law school/university and practice are worlds apart. It becomes very overwhelming for the graduates to live up to the expectations.
Fresh law graduates find it very hard to find appropriate jobs for themselves because the demand is quite less than the supply. This can be clear by looking at the recent stats of the Law Society of South Africa. The country has a total of 15,595 law firms and only 12 of them have more than 50 attorneys.
Around 14,000 legal practitioners have their own firms and work alone. They are hired by the clients to solve legal matters. Hence, they have no job or appropriate employment according to their skills.
Demographics of National Candidate Attorneys
According to the demographics, there are only 901 attorneys less than the age of 25. This is only 13% of the total number of attorneys. The major chunk of lawyers is between the ages of 25 to 34.
Around 541 attorneys are between the ages of 35 to 44 which is around 8%. Hence, fresh graduates find it hard to look for a job. They struggle to find appropriate openings according to their qualifications.
A brief yet informative article is written on the unemployment rate in South Africa. The lawyers in the country are struggling to find appropriate jobs. Statistics show that the majority of young lawyers are unemployed because of unequal income and less demand.
The firms do not have more than 20 attorneys and prefer the ones with experience in the field. Hence, the young graduates feel overwhelmed and leave their careers.