Good news for software developers in South Africa

[Jamie McKane]

Good news for software developers in South Africa

One of the biggest worries many have about the current COVID-19 lockdown is that it will hurt the job market, and many have already lost their jobs as a result.

The National Treasury predicted earlier this month that over 7 million jobs could be lost in South Africa as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown.

 

[P924]

If the economy shrinks there is no good news for anyone - in the medium to long term. The only good news for software developers is that it might be easier to get a remote job looking forward.

 

[d0b33]

The only good news for software developers is that it might be easier to get a remote job looking forward.

And it's getting much more competitive.

 

[moosag]

100% gents..

But...

The flip side is that the complete opposite could happen. Right now for businesses to operate in a lockdown or post covid world is tech. Ecommerce and digital channels/mediums have fast tracked their market share overnight. Whichever way you look at it. Business will need tech more then ever in a Post Covid world.

This may have the effect of more "software development" skills required to achieve said business goals with the ability to:
1) Operate and partake in business activity
2) Compete
3) Get advantage over others

For the future.

Either way tech, work from home, ecomm, etc has been brought forward many years, especially in countries like SA. Will be interesting to see where the market is 12-18 months from now.

But I am one to be more realistic/pessimistic so I will say the job market for ICT (data and software engineers) will considerably decrease over the next 24 months.

 

[r4nd0m]

Demand for software developers might be still be favourable, but finding competent developers, at least in ZA, is still an issue.

 

[cguy]

The only good news for software developers is that it might be easier to get a remote job looking forward.

I’m hoping to travel more because of this when travel becomes more normal again. Currently (well, pre-Covid), I would travel a lot, but mostly to cities where we had offices.

When this is done, I want to spend months in cities that I like regardless of where the office is. Will probably include more time in Cape Town - my only concern is that if I spend too much time in SA, I would meet some BS “ordinarily resident” criteria and be stuck paying outrageous taxes (way to lose out on foreign cash injections, SA).