South Africa’s highest-paying programming languages

Software developers programming in Go and Kotlin earn the highest salaries on average, while PHP developers earn the least.

This is according to OfferZen’s latest South African Tech Talent Insights report, which details trends in software developer skills, salaries, and demographics in South Africa.

The programming languages considered in this report were C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, PHP, Python, and TypeScript.

The report found that the most in-demand programming languages were Go and Kotlin, with developers with over ten years of experience earning an average monthly salary of R108,112 and R111,370, respectively.

This finding was consistent across all levels of experience.

Java is the third most in-demand programming language for developers with over ten years of experience, earning an average of R100,564.

However, this was not consistent at lower levels of experience, as Java was found to be the third-lowest-paying programming language for developers entering the workforce.

The lowest-paying programming language for people with one to two years of experience is PHP, with an average salary of R14,705. This trend remained consistent in all levels of experience.

JavaScript was found to be the second-lowest-paying programming language for developers in their first four years of work. It then becomes C# from years four to ten of working as a developer.

Experienced backend developers are the most in-demand compared to frontend and full-stack developers, earning an average of R94,785 monthly.

These developers are also the most sought-after when entering the workforce.

Frontend and full-stack developers with over ten years of experience earn R71,211 and R84,950, respectively.

When comparing developer salaries in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria, South Africa’s top three cities by developer population, Cape Town offers the highest salaries for people with more than two years of experience.

Johannesburg offers the highest average monthly salary for those starting their programming careers — R24,786.

When looking to relocate, developers with over ten years of experience can expect an average monthly salary of R97,970 in Cape Town, R93,667 in Joburg, and R93,119 in Pretoria.

Software development jobs have come under pressure, with CareerJunction’s Employment insights report for the first quarter of 2024 revealing 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 being the highest.

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

“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 noted that tech job applications tripled 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.