Bad news for South African software developers

Hiring activity in the Information Technology (IT) sector declined in early 2024, and it is becoming significantly harder for software developers to get and pass interviews.

This is according to data from CareerJunction and OfferZen, the latter of which also revealed that junior developers are the hardest hit.

CareerJunction’s Employment Insights report for the first quarter of 2024 revealed that hiring activity in the IT sector was 15% lower in the first three months of 2024 than in the last three months of 2023.

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

Its data revealed that three sectors saw notable declines, with the IT sector’s being the highest at 15%.

CareerJunction noted that a decline in demand for Software developers is the primary driver of the sector’s overall decline.

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

Hiring activity declines in the first quarter of 2024. Source: CareerJunction Employment Insights report for Q1 2024.

“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.

At the same time, jobseekers in the IT sector engaged at a significantly higher level in the first quarter of 2024 than in the last three months of 2023.

CareerJunction said engagement in the sector during the first three months of the year is the highest in the past nine quarters.

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

OfferZen co-founder Philip Joubert acknowledged the same in the firm’s 2024 South African State of the Developer Nation report.

He noted that tech job applications have tripled in the last year.

“It’s now significantly harder to get interviews and the interviews are harder to pass,” said Joubert.

However, he noted that the market is showing signs of recovery, with tech layoffs still down and more tech roles becoming available.

Software developer salaries from 2021 to 2024. Source: OfferZen State of the Developer Nation report for 2024.

According to OfferZen, junior developers are the hardest hit by the drop in demand.

“More than half of retrenched developers managed to find a new role within three months. On average, senior developers took the shortest time to find a new role,” it said.

“Over 40% took more than 6 months to find a new job after retrenchments and their salary growth reflects this too.”

Regarding software developer salaries, OfferZen said the harsher economic climate is showing through slowed salary growth in the space.

“Across the board, salary band growth for developers has slowed more and more in recent years,” it said.

“Entry-level and junior developers have seen their salaries decrease in 2023, while intermediates have only seen nominal increases.”

It also tracked salary growth against inflation, which showed that many developers’ buying power decreased in the past two years.