Hiring activity remains suppressed in South Africa when it should be picking up, but some opportunities are still available.
In its latest Job Market Trends Report, Pnet said that hiring activity usually starts following April.
However, May 2024 showed 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,” said Pnet.
Year-on-year, hiring activity decreased by 10% compared to May 2023.
The two-year comparison shows that recruitment activity decreased by 5% compared to May 2022.
That said, some jobs are still showing increased demand for workers and professionals, with accounting skills remaining the most sought-after.
Trending jobs include:
- Cost & Management Accounting – Finance
- Nursing / Professional Care Giving – Medical & Health
- Financial / Project Accounting – Finance
- Accounts Payable / Receivable – Finance
- Business Development – Business and Management
Sector-specific hiring activity trends can also provide insights into the local job market and South African economy.
Stable and increasing recruitment activity shows confidence in the local economy and business growth.
Only one sector across the country shows year-on-year growth, considering the slowed hiring activity in the year so far: Agriculture and Engineering.
Although there has been lower and more volatile hiring activity in the sector in 2024, it still increased by 6% year-on-year.
Poor job market
The decreased hiring activity indicates an economy that is struggling.
According to Stats SA’s latest liquidation data, 125 businesses closed in May.
Of these 125 closures, 114 were voluntary, while 11 were compulsory.
This takes the total number of liquidations for the first five months of 2024 to 638.
Closing these businesses will not help South Africa’s high unemployment numbers.
Stats SA’s latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) showed that total employment fell by 67,000 or -0.6% quarter-on-quarter, from 10,731,000 in December 2023 to 10,664,000 in March 2024.
This was primarily due to decreases in the following industries:
- Trade (-57,000 or -2.4%)
- community services (-18,000 or -0.6%)
- business services (-4,000 or -0.2%)
- mining (-3,000 or -0.6%)
Total employment also dropped by 74,000 or -0.7% from March 2023 to March 2024.
Full-time and part-time employment decreased by 16,000 or -0.2% and 38,000 or -3.1% quarter year-on-year, respectively.
The QES data aligns with the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), which stated that South Africa’s unemployment rate increased by up to 32.9%.
The QLFS examines comprehensive employment and unemployment trends, while QES data reflect the number of South Africans receiving formal salaries.
The QLFS showed that the number of employed persons increased by 22,000 quarterly to 16.7 million in Q1 2024.
That said, the number of unemployed persons jumped by 330,000 to 8.2 million over the same quarter.
In addition, the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement decreased by 214,000 to 13.1 million. Discouraged work-seekers, however, decreased by 1,000 in Q1 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
These figures caused a net decrease of 215,000 in the not economically active population.
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