Hiring activity in South Africa remained volatile according to the Pnet Job Market Trends Report, which provides insights into recruitment and employment trends in the South African market.
The report by the online recruitment platform said that after April every year there was usually an uptake in hiring activity; however, in this year, there was a slight decrease in hiring activity. “This may be partly as a result of political instability and concerns leading up to and following the 2024 South Africa elections. Year-on-year, hiring activity decreased by -10%, compared to May 2023. The trend for the two-year comparison reveals that recruitment activity has decreased by -5% compared to May 2022,” said Paul Byrne, the head of Data Insights & Customer Success at Pnet.
The recruitment platform noted that sector-specific hiring activity trends could provide valuable insights into the local job market and the South African economy. It said that stable and increasing recruitment activity indicated confidence in the local economy and business growth.
The report noted that only one sector showed year-on-year growth, considering the slowed hiring activity in 2024 thus far.
Although there has been lower and more volatile hiring activity for architecture and engineering in this sector, this year, year-on-year, it had increased by 6%.
Pnet, part of JobTech giant The Stepstone Group, said it recently supported and contributed to the largest survey on job seeker mobility globally. It said the findings of the Decoding Global Talent analysis, published in March, revealed interesting mobility trends comparing global and regional preferences, views, and expectations on the topic of working abroad.
It said the findings clearly showed that young professionals were the most mobile across the world. Globally and across all age groups, about 63% would work and move abroad for work. This number leapt to 73% when only considering respondents up to 30 years old.
South Africa shows a much higher mobility rate than the global average. 79.5% of South African respondents stated that they would be willing to move and work abroad, while 84% of young South Africans (up to 30 years of age) were open to the idea of working abroad.
In fact, 44% of young South African respondents stated that they were actively looking for work abroad, Pnet said.
“Naturally, young South Africans are likely to be more adaptable than older professionals and have ‘less strings attached’. At this stage of their lives, they are less likely to have a family to support or a homeowner bond and other such expenses to pay. In addition, young South Africans are facing high unemployment rates. Combined with the thirst to explore something new, it’s understandable that young South Africans are more open to work opportunities outside the country,” reads the report.
The platform takes a regional view of the latest job market trends. It takes a closer look at three different provinces every month.
For Mpumalanga, top-in-demand professionals were business and management, admin, office and support, and sales. Mpumalanga has seen growth in four different jobs sectors over the last 12 months. Architecture and engineering grew by 36%, manufacturing and assembly by 8%, business and management by 5%, and IT by 5%.
In Limpopo, the top-in-demand professionals were business and management, finance, admin, office and support, building and construction. Some 27% of jobs in Limpopo were for business and management roles. Year-on-year, there has been a slight decrease in business and management jobs (-7%).
In KwaZulu-Natal, the top-in-demand professionals were finance, business and management, sales, admin, office, and support. KwaZulu-Natal has seen significant growth in hiring activity for building and construction roles as well as architecture and engineering roles. Year-on-year, both sectors grew by 21% to 22% in this province.
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