Bad news for IT jobseekers in South Africa

Hiring activity in the information technology (IT) sector was 15% lower in the first three months of 2024 than in the last three months of 2023.

CareerJunction’s Employment Insights report for Q1 2024 shows that demand for IT professionals remains high. However, it has declined consistently over the past two years.

CareerJunction’s Employment Insights report provides an overview of the supply and demand trends in South Africa’s online job market.

The report is based on data collected from around 5,000 of the country’s most prominent recruiters.

CareerJunction compared hiring activity across various sectors in January, February, and March 2024 to the last three months of 2023.

It was found that three sectors saw notable declines, with the IT sector’s drop in hiring activity being the most significant at 15%.

It was noted that hiring activity in the Business & Management and Finance sectors dropped by 7% and 6%, respectively.

Regarding employment activity in the IT sector, CareerJunction noted that a decline in demand for Software developers is the primary driver behind declining demand in the sector.

Year-on-year, the IT sector has seen demand drop by approximately 26%.

“Demand for IT professionals remains very high in the recruitment market. However, over the past two years, recruitment for IT professionals has been slowing down consistently,” said CareerJunction.

“The main contributor to this trend is the decreasing demand for Software developers (although they are still high in demand compared to other roles).”

CareerJunction noted that jobseekers engaged at a significantly higher level during the first three months of the year, showing the highest engagement for at least the past nine quarters.

“Year-on-year, jobseeker engagement for IT roles has increased by 24%,” it added.