The most in-demand job skills in South Africa right now

The most in-demand job skills in South Africa right now

Jobs portal CareerJunction has published its Employment Insights for March 2022, showing which job skills are most in-demand in South Africa right now.

The insights report replaces CareerJunction’s previous job supply and demand index, taking a more detailed look at the job sectors in the country that are currently hiring, and which positions are most sought after.

The report is based on comprehensive data gathered from the Saongroup South Africa – where around 5,000 of the country’s top recruiters (both agencies and employers) advertise their positions to millions of registered jobseekers.

The latest report shows that there has been a continued increase in recruitment activity over the last 13 months, which is encouraging because it signifies that employers are showing confidence in the local economy and that more opportunities are becoming available for job seekers despite the ongoing challenges faced by the local economy.

Between March 2021 and March 2022, hiring activity increased by 39%, CareerJunction said, representing an uptake of 18% in job advertising, compared to the year-on-year stats for March 2020 to March 2021.

In-demand job skills

Admin, Office & Support has seen the biggest increase in hiring activity, the report shows.

“One reason for this may be that an increasing number of local companies are moving back to a more office-bound working environment as Covid-19 restrictions continue to ease,” CareerJunction said.

It recorded growing hiring activity in three main sectors over the last three months. In each sector, several roles have been advertised more frequently.

Admin, Office and Support (+17%)

• Admin clerk
• Personal assistant
• Switchboard / reception
• Human resources

Finance (+10%)

• Financial/project accounting
• Bookkeeping
• Payroll and wages
• Financial analysis
• Purchasing and procurement

Business and Management (+4%)

• Middle / department management
• Staff recruitment / selection

Conversely, CareerJunction also tracked a drop in hiring activity in certain sectors.

“Although Information Technology continues to be the top-performing employment sector in South Africa, it’s interesting to observe that hiring activity in this area has declined by 3% in the last three months.

“This decline may be partly attributed to increased emigration as travel restrictions are relaxed as well as the growing trend of ‘digital nomads’ in the IT space,” it said.

Medical and health (-14%)

• Paramedic
• Nursing/professional caregiving
• Optometrist

Education, training and library (-8%)

• Teaching

Information technology (-3%)

• Software development
• IT project administration/management
• Systems/network administration

CareerJunction researched three popular roles across four different sectors using actual salary offerings to compare market related salaries quarter by quarter. The findings for Q4 2020 to Q1 2021 and Q4 2021 to Q1 2022 reveal volatile salary trends within the IT industry.

In contrast, professionals in account management, data analysis/data warehousing, human resources and financial/project accounting are being offered higher salaries compared to a year ago.

While there is no consistent change in the high end of salary offerings, advertised salary packages for roles in sales, finance and admin, office & support are generally at the same or at a better rate than they were a year ago.

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