South Africa’s tech sector is steadily recovering from the slowdown in recruitment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hiring activity across job categories shows candidates in IT are among the most sought-after.
This is according to CareerJunction Employment Insights, based on February 2022 data gathered from the Saongroup South Africa, which works with over 5 000 of SA’s top recruiters.
According to the insights, job advertising across multiple sectors is slowly recovering after a significant slowdown in recruitment activity in 2020 amid the global economic downturn. There were clear signs of recovery in 2021, while 2022 indicates an increase in employment prospects for jobseekers in IT and various other professions.
“Comparing hiring activity across these job categories year-on-year over the last three years, the IT sector seems to have recovered from the slowdown in recruitment activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hiring activity shows that candidates in IT, finance, and business and management are the most sought-after positions,” says the report.
Looking at job advertising for these three sectors during February 2022, over half of the vacancies are in Gauteng, with 21% in the Western Cape and 10% in KwaZulu-Natal, it notes.
While hiring activity slowed down significantly for IT professionals across most skill-sets since the beginning of lockdown, recruiters previously told ITWeb that demand for data analysis and data warehousing skills seemed unaffected and remained stable.
Meanwhile, a study by professional skills development firm, the Skills Development Corporation, which identified the most in-demand jobs in South Africa as of the end of 2021, noted IT, mathematics, analytics and engineering were the most sought-after skills last year.
“Careers in the IT sector are considered more ‘evergreen’ than others mentioned on the list, given the ease with which professionals can pivot to new demands and the projected longevity of the industry itself,” states Skills Development Corporation.
According to the 2021 ICT Skills Survey, significant digital skills gaps persist, as firms in SA’s ICT sector battle to fill tens of thousands of vacancies.
The survey notes the top occupations with hard-to-fill vacancies in the ICT sector were software developer, computer network technician, developer programmer, ICT communications assistant, computer network and systems engineer, and ICT security specialist.
The CareerJunction research further notes the IT, finance, and business and management sectors are also offering more remote job opportunities, in order to attract the right talent.
As a result of COVID-19, remote work opportunities have become the new norm globally. Many businesses are looking to employ people remotely, to save on office overhead costs and as an added incentive for top candidates to work for their organisations.
“In South Africa, there are 46x more vacancies with the option of ‘working from home’ compared to January 2020,” notes the report.
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