These sectors are still hiring during South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown

As South Africa prepares for lower levels of coronavirus lockdown regulations, Covid-19 continues to impact the local job market, data from jobs website Adzuna shows.

The group said that job adverts have continued to decline, with reports indicating that the country has lost between 21% and 38% of advertised vacancies since the start of this year.

“Unlike most other countries, South Africa has seen a massive drop in the number of cleaning and domestic help jobs,” said Adzuna country manager, Jesse Green.

“This sector has seen very few new jobs being posted since the end of March. The industry has had a decline in online postings of -85%.”

With the current lockdown situation and the fact that schools have been closed since 18 March, Green said there has also been a 48% reduction in total advertisements for teaching jobs compared to the start of this year.

Other notable declines in job postings include:

• Vacancies in warehousing and logistics have plummeted by 33%,
• Administrative job advertisements have fallen by 70%;
• There has been an overall loss of 69% of online listings in the hospitality sector since the start of March this year;
• The property (-74%), retail (-60%), construction (-50%) and sales (-49%) industries have all reported notable declines.

Adzuna expects a further decline in online job advertisements across South Africa.

“The impact of the decline in jobs is already disrupting the economy,” said Green.

“We’ve seen massive reductions in ads across the board and the impact that the decline of vacancy has on sectors like manufacturing will be felt by thousands of businesses in the weeks to come.”

Finding a job 

While jobs in restaurants  – and the hospitality sector as a whole – are almost non-existent, Green said that there are a number of sectors which are hiring during the lockdown.

“Even though strict social distancing measures are being taken, companies still need to hire new employees,” he said.

“This might be why we are seeing staggered hiring trends. But it’s worth noting that even though things have slowed down, not all industries have halted their recruitment and hiring efforts.”

Green said that two of the top hiring sectors at the moment are grocery stores and logistics. He added that jobs in customer service, warehousing, packaging, accounting and healthcare are still in demand.

With the job market is understandably tight, Green said that it is critical to apply for positions that fit your experience – even if they are in a different sector than you have traditionally worked in.

“A role as a marketing consultant might not be on the cards within a hospitality company right now. But the same role might be available at a pharmaceutical company,” he said.

He added that location also plays a part in finding a job.

“Although there were just under 60,000 live ads on Adzuna in the middle of May, 30% of those jobs were located in Gauteng and 29% of all jobs in South Africa were based in the Western Cape.

“This means that Gauteng and the Western Cape are still the country’s economic hotspots for landing a job.”

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