The lockdown has crushed IT jobs in South Africa, but ecommerce is booming
CareerJunction has released its latest CareerJunction Index (CJI) report, which reveals a significant decline in hiring activity in the IT and telecoms market.
The CJI is based on data gathered from the CareerJunction website and monitors the labour market in South Africa by examining supply and demand trends.
According to the report, hiring activity decreased significantly for ICT professionals since the onset of the national lockdown in March.
Job posts for architecture and engineering professionals have also declined rapidly over the last few months.
While recruitment activity slowed in the IT and telecoms market, demand for medical and health professionals has almost doubled since May.
Other fields have also started to show recovery, with hiring activity steadily growing in the business and management, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, and medical sectors.
Since May 2020, the demand for business, management, manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics professionals grew by more than 40%.
Strong ecommerce growth
The growth in warehousing and logistics was expected with the increased use of ecommerce in South Africa.
Nedbank CIB’s Ridwaan Loonat explained the lockdown has accelerated the adoption of ecommerce in South Africa.
Ecommerce currently accounts for 16% of global retail sales and is expected to grow to 22% by 2023. In South Africa, this number is between 1% and 2%.
While South Africa is lagging behind global ecommerce standards, the country is well-positioned to show strong ecommerce growth in future.
Loonat said the country has a strong logistics sector, which means it has the capability to support strong ecommerce growth.
Demand for professionals in South Africa
The charts below show demand for professionals in prominent sectors of the economy.
The red charts indicate a big downturn in demand, orange charts show low demand, and green charts show increasing demand.
Big downturn in demand
Low demand
Increasing demand
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