These jobs have the most work-from-home opportunities in South Africa
Data from CareerJunction’s latest employment insights report shows which sectors in South Africa are currently offering the most remote work opportunities in the country.
The CareerJunction Employment Insights Report examines employment trends in the South African online job market, providing insights into the country’s labour market dynamics.
The report’s data was obtained from Saongroup South Africa, a platform used by approximately 5,000 recruiters across the country to advertise job vacancies that are accessible to millions of registered job seekers.
According to the jobs portal, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 shifted many perspectives and attitudes regarding how work is approached in South Africa. This led to a shake-up for many companies, either switching to fully remote (work from home) or hybrid models.
“Working from home was a welcome change for many,” CareerJunction said. However, the trend has not been as sticky as some employees had hoped.
“Since the pandemic ended, a lot of South African companies have been calling their staff back into the office. This may be partly attributed to the ongoing load-shedding, as employees working from home do not always have adequate back-up power supply.”
Other factors also come into play, though, with employers in particular being keen on getting teams back into more collaborative environments.
To maintain a balance between employee and employee demands around worklife, the hybrid work model – with a share of home-based and office work – has increased in popularity. But even this has faced its challenges.
Despite the back on forth on which work model is best, one area that has seen significant changes is the number of remote work opportunities that are now available.
According to CareerJunction, remote jobs were very scarce just a few years ago. In January 2020, only 0.3% of all jobs advertised were ‘work from home’. In 2022, around 5% of all jobs advertised were ‘work-from-home vacancies.
The tide is turning, however, with the group noting that the number of remote work jobs available on the market it has dropped to 3.4%. This is also reflective of the wider job market, where hiring activity has dropped.
Where remote work is available
CareerJunction noted a 28.2% downturn in remote jobs versus non-remote jobs over the last 12 months, indicating that the trend of remote jobs is steadily decreasing in South Africa. Despite the downturn, there are still many positions available.
Remote work jobs are obviously better suited to some sectors than others. An admin job that works primarily online would find it easier to work remotely than a miner or fitness trainer.
CareerJucntion highlighted the following sectors that offer the most remote working vacancies in South Africa:
- Information technology
- Business & management
- Finance
- Admin, office & support
- Sales
The following sectors offer the least remote working vacancies:
- Mining
- Sport & fitness
- Agriculture, fishing & forestry
- Personal appearance
- Transportation
- Travel & tourism
The graph below shows the distribution of remote vacancies:
Information Technology
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2020: 0.4%
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2023: 10.4%
The IT sector offers the highest number of work opportunities.
Offers for remote work peaked in January 2022, where they peaked at 12.2%. Currently, remote IT job opportunities have more than doubled since January 2021.
“In terms of the distribution of remote IT jobs, Software Development roles represent the highest proportion of remote working opportunities by far (56%), followed by Systems / Network Administration (9%), Data Analysis / Data Warehousing (9%) and Business Analysis (7%),” the report said.
Business & Management
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2020: 0.1%
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2023: 2.1%
Remote jobs within this sector are rare but not unheard of, said CareerJunction.
“In January 2023, 2.1% of Business & Management jobs were remote job opportunities. Six months ago (July 2022), this sector saw its peak in remote work opportunities (3%).”
The majority of remote work for this sector is for middle/department management roles (33%), 13% for Staff Recruitment, 10% for Infrastructure, and 10% for Business Development.
Finance
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2020: 0.1%
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2023: 1.1%
The report found that the finance sector has limited options for remote work opportunities, as only 1.1% of Finance jobs currently allow for telecommuting.
In February 2022, there was a spike in the proportion of remote Finance jobs, with 1.6% of all positions offering remote work. However, there has been a significant 33.8% decrease in the ratio of remote to non-remote Finance jobs compared to the previous year.
Among the available remote job roles, financial/project accounting positions account for the highest share at 23%, followed by internal auditors at 11%, bookkeepers at 11%, and external auditors at 8%, said CareerJunction.
Admin, Office & Support
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2020: 0.5%
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2023: 1.7%
According to the jobs portal, this sector has seen a significant drop in the last year, with 50% fewer remote work opportunities.
Of those offering positions, one in three jobs are allocated to client/customer support, 28% to personal assistants and 20% to admin clerk roles, CareerJunction said.
Sales
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2020: 0.2%
- Remote vacancies in Jan 2023: 1.5%
The proportion of remote work opportunities in the sales sector has been increasing steadily over the past three years, with 1.5% of jobs currently being remote.
In the third quarter of 2022, this reached a peak of over 2% of sales jobs being remote.
“Nearly half of all remote sales jobs (48%) are representative/sales consulting roles, followed by account management jobs at one in four, and retail jobs at 9%. Many of remote sales jobs are concentrated in the digital or e-commerce industries,” reported CareerJunction.
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