The most in-demand job skills in South Africa this year so far

Recent data from the jobs portal CareerJunction shows the most in-demand jobs in South Africa over the first six months of 2023 as of the end of June.

The company’s latest Industry Report showed that compared to the previous year, June 2023 marked a 10% increase in hiring, while recruitment activity increased by 6% year-on-year from June 2022.

According to the group, this was mainly a result of a general uptake in recruitment, along with significant increases in hiring for the Finance and IT sectors as well as the Admin, Office & Support and Architecture & Engineering sectors.

The data for the report was gathered from 5,000 of the country’s largest recruiters, agencies, and employers who advertise job positions on the CareerJunction portal.

The data did highlight the sectors that showed the most significant hiring activity over the past three months, including Building & Construction, Sales, and Business & Management.

The growth numbers and most in-demand jobs within these notable sectors are listed below.

Building & Construction (+22%)

• Building Project Management.

Sales (+7%)

• Representative / Sales Consulting.

Business & Management (+6%)

• Employee & Industrial Relations;
• Executive Management / Director; and
• Middle / Department Management.

Regional differences

CareerJunction also reported that recruitment per province in South Africa remained relatively stagnant over the quarter.

The group noted that Gauteng still offers most of South Africa’s job opportunities (53%) as the country’s economic hub.

The following 30% of job offers are in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) combined, while KZN saw a decline of 1% in recruitment compared to last month but still held the third largest percentage at 9%.

Most in-demand sectors and roles in the first six months of 2023

CareerJunction also reported that recruitment numbers in South Africa over the first half of 2023 showed steady growth.

“The first half of 2023 (H1:2023) showed stable growth in vacancies, indicating an improved level of employment compared to the last quarter of 2022,” said the agency.

This was also confirmed by Stats SA’s quarterly labour force survey (QLFS), which showed uptake in employment during Q1:2023, with 179,000 more employed people than there were in Q4:2022.

Looking at hiring activity, the most active job sectors over the last six months have been Business & Management, Finance and Information Technology (IT), Admin, Office & Support and Sales.

The growth numbers and most in-demand jobs within these notable sectors are listed below.

Business & Management (+17%)

• Middle / Department Management;
• Senior Management;
• Team Leader & Supervisor;
• Business Development; and
• Executive Management / Director.

Finance (+15%)

• Financial / Project Accounting;
• Bookkeeping;
• Accounts Payable / Receivable;
• Purchasing & Procurement; and
• Cost & Management Accounting.

Information Technology (IT) (+14%)

• Software Development;
• Systems / Network Administration;
• Data Analysis / Data Warehousing; and
• Business Analysis.

Admin, Office & Support (+8%)

• Admin Clerk;
• Human Resources; and
• Client / Customer Support.

Sales (+7%)

• Representative / Sales Consulting; and
• Account Management.

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