20 of the most in-demand jobs in South Africa right now
At the start of each year, thousands of South African job seekers are on the hunt for better career options and work opportunities, and there are some jobs in high demand going into 2024.
CareerJunction conducted research, analysing the demand for labour during 2023 to understand South African employment trends for 2024.
This research entailed investigating which professions are in highest demand and looking at hiring trends over time, in terms of which job roles have grown in demand and which occupations have seen a decrease in job openings.
Over the past few years, these five job sectors have remained the most in demand:
- Business & Management,
- Finance,
- Information Technology (IT),
- Sales, and
- Admin, Office & Support.
Interestingly, up until 2022, IT used to be the top in demand job sector.
However, large tech job cuts in the IT sector across the world dominated the labour market news in 2022 and 2023. The global decrease in labour demand for IT staff was also felt in South Africa.
As a result, IT dropped from first place to second in 2022 on the most in-demand job sectors list. In 2023, IT dropped to third as demand for Business & Management professionals and Finance professionals overtook demand for IT professionals.
Since 2022, Business & Management professionals have been in the highest demand in the local job market.
A breakdown of the top five sectors and the top 20 jobs within these sectors are listed below, as outlined by CareerJunction.
Business & Management
Business & Management professionals are currently in highest demand when looking at advertised vacancies online.
Managerial and leadership skills are in particularly high demand in the local employment market.
In 2023, the top in-demand professions were”
- Middle / Department Manager roles
- Senior Manager roles
- Executive roles
- Team Leader roles
- Supervisor roles
Finance
For 2023, Finance is ranked the 2nd most in-demand job sector.
Accounting skills are crucial across the most in-demand finance roles and, within the Finance sector, the top demanded job roles are as follows:
- Financial / Project Accountants
- Bookkeepers
- Accounts Payable / Receivable professionals
- Purchasing & Procurement professionals
- Cost & Management Accountants
Sales
Sales consultants play an important part in a company’s sustainability in terms of staying profitable and competitive. It’s no surprise that many businesses are in need of sales skills.
The jobs in highest demand are:
- Representative / Sales Consulting
- Account Management
Information Technology (IT)
Software Developers have been one of the most in-demand professions globally over the last decade.
Although demand for IT professionals including Software Developers decreased over the last three years, Software development skills remain top in-demand.
During 2023, Software Developer roles were the 2nd most in-demand job role. Other IT roles which are highly sought after in the South African job market are as follows:
- Systems / Network Administrators
- Data Analysis / Data Warehousing professionals
- Business Analysts
Admin, Office & Support
Although the Admin, Office & Support job sector moved from ranking fourth to fifth on the list of most in demand job sectors when comparing 2022 to 2023, Administration skills are just as crucial for successful businesses.
As a result, Admin, Office & Support has been in the top 5 in-demand job sectors for many years.
Top in-demand Admin, Office & Support roles are as follows:
- Admin Clerks
- Client / Customer Support professionals
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