Good news for business and finance professionals in South Africa

Business and management professionals are currently in the highest demand in South Africa, while finance is the second most in-demand job sector.

This was revealed in the latest CareerJunction Employment Insights Report, which analyses the supply and demand trends in South Africa’s online job market.

The report represents online labour dynamics in South Africa and serves as a foundation for potential HR solutions and strategies.

The analysis revealed that recruitment activity decreased at the end of 2023. Hiring activity was also 8% lower year-on-year.

“December 2023 showed the lowest monthly recruitment activity over the last three years,” the CareerJunction report said.

The best-performing sectors were business and finance. Hiring activity for business and management professionals in Q4 2023 increased 5% year-on-year.

Managerial and leadership skills are in particularly high demand in the South African employment market.

In 2023, the top in-demand professions were middle and department manager roles. senior manager roles, executive roles, team leader roles and supervisor roles are also in high demand.

Finance was ranked the second most in-demand job sector. Within the finance sector, the top roles were financial accountants, bookkeepers, and accounts payable professionals.

On the other end of the scale, hiring activity has decreased by 25% for legal professionals and moderately for sales, marketing, and construction professionals.

Top in-demand job sectors

Over the past few years, five job sectors have remained the most in-demand – business and management, finance, IT, sales and admin, and office and support.

However, there was a big change. Until 2022, IT was the top-in-demand job sector. However, large tech job cuts in the IT sector worldwide 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 the most in-demand sector to third.

Demand for business and management professionals and finance professionals overtook demand for IT professionals.

Although demand for IT professionals, including software developers, has decreased over the last three years, software development skills remain sought after.

Since 2022, business and management professionals have been in the highest demand in the local job market.

The chart below shows the change in demand for different sectors.