Major AI fears for jobs in South Africa

Demand for AI skills is growing in South Africa, with many South Africans believing that they’ll require significant reskilling.

According to CareerJunction’s new Employment Insights for Q2 2024, demand for AI skills has gradually but consistently increased over the last three years, rising by 94%.

CareerJunction thus investigated job seeker trends better to understand AI skills in the South African workforce.

Over the last three years, there has been a 61% increase in job seekers with AI skills.

AI skills in Machine Learning (ML), predictive modelling and artificial intelligence expertise are predominately found in job seekers with the following occupations:

• Data Analysis / Data Warehousing

• Software Development

• Systems / Network Administration

• Teaching

Breaking it down further, the following skill sets have shown a high adaptation to GenAI professions:

Software Development

• Software engineering/developing,
• machine learning,
• web developing,
• business developing (bi) skills,
• general (full stack) developing skills

Systems / Network Administration

• Systems engineering,
• Technical IT skills

Data Analysis / Data Warehousing

• Data science,
• Data analysis,
• Data engineering,
• Business intelligence analysis,
• Machine learning,
• Quantitative analysis

Teaching

• Lecturing
• Teaching assistance

Global differences

CareerJunction also supported its parent company, The Stepstone Group, in a study on how shifting trends in the Age of AI impact the global workforce.

The global study showed similar results to those in South Africa, with job seekers in IT and education leading the way in adapting to Gen AI:

The Stepstone Group’s global study shows that South African job seekers are very conscious of the impact that Gen AI will have.

South Africa comes in ninth place regarding job seekers’ perceptions of Gen AI’s significance in transforming their job roles.

Over 36% of South African job seekers said that GenAI would significantly impact their job role in the next five years and that they will require reskilling (green bars in the graphic below).

Kenya ranked number one in terms of being aware of GenAI’s impact. 46% of Kenyan job seekers said that GenAI will significantly impact the demand for their jobs and that upskilling will be required.

Germany was on the other end of the scale, with 10% of respondents thinking that GenAI would have a major impact on their job role within the next five years.

Developed countries, including Denmark, Ireland, and Austria, were far more likely to believe that their jobs would not require significant reskilling.

IT changes

Despite their GenAI skills, there has been a continuous decrease in hiring for IT roles, with the sector seeing a 21% year-on-year drop in hiring activity in Q2 2024.

However, demand for IT professionals remains very high in the recruitment market. The sector saw a 4% increase in hiring activity from Q1 2024 to Q2 2024.

“With the decreasing demand trend in South Africa for IT professionals, they are becoming more engaged with the local job market,” said CareerJunction.

“While a wide range of IT jobseekers were previously headhunted and didn’t have to engage with the job market, this trend seems to be changing, and jobseekers are starting to proactively interact with the job market more frequently than before.”

Read: The UK is tapping skilled South Africans to fill these 10 jobs – with one paying up to R2 million