South Africa's shifting employment landscape is not all doom and gloom

However, all is not lost. This is the sentiment of Marc Privett, general manager at Simplify.HR: “Recent figures – drawn from an analysis of jobs published online on job boards and corporate career sites that allow for insights and comparisons on a national scale – some key industries show recruitment numbers that are beginning to reflect pre-pandemic levels, or higher.

"Industries charting higher recruitment numbers than pre-pandemic data include: Construction (January 2019 – 2568; September 2021 – 2871); Science and Research (January 2019 – 837; September 2021 – 1212); Marketing and Media (January 2019 – 3,453; September 2021 – 3,556); Consultancy (January 2019 – 760; September 2021 – 1,212); Health (January 2019 – 1,964; September 2021 – 2,366); Production and Manufacturing (January 2019 – 2,761; September 2021 – 2,908) and Retail (January 2019 – 2,829; September 2021 – 2,929).

"Although not yet at pre-pandemic level, additional industries showing marked growth in comparison to May 2020 include: IT and Telecoms (January 2019 – 8,952; May 2020 – 5,331; September 2021 – 8,193; Admin and Clerical (January 2019 – 6,832; May 2020 – 3,072; September 2021 – 5,002); Management (January 2019 – 658; May 2020 – 171; September 2021 – 279) and Sales (January 2019 – 7,757; May 2020 – 4,468; September 2021 – 7,227)."

Whilst not a reality across the board, Privett feels these industries are beginning to paint a far more positive and encouraging picture of South Africa’s employment landscape – one that will hopefully start to show up in other sectors. “Whilst, for example, hospitality and leisure employment figures remain drastically lower than pre Covid-19, we draw confidence from recent developments that we hope will allow for an increase in tourism over the coming holiday season – South Africa’s removal from the UK’s red list as well as our country’s move to Level 1 regulations and what would appear to be a decrease in Covid-19 infections nationwide.”

On the remuneration front, according to the South African Reserve Bank: “….nominal average wages in the non-agricultural sector were 5.4 percentage points above their pre-pandemic level by the first quarter of 2021. Real wages have also recovered well, being just 0.2 percentage points below their 2019 level.” They do caution however that: “the strong recovery in average wages occurred even though the unemployment rate has climbed to record-high levels. The composition effect and overtime work can explain this apparent puzzle. When lower-wage workers disproportionately lose jobs, average wages rise, with the wage bill more fully reflecting the earnings of higher-paid workers who remain employed and creating an illusion of high wage growth².”

Although Privett cautions that we are in no way out of the woods, he highlights professional recruitment group Michael Page’s recent report³ on the prevailing hiring trends for 2021 which stated that, “South Africa is in the eye of a massive churn as it deals with the aftermath of political riots, an ongoing global pandemic, and a dwindling economy. The good news is that the only way from here is up. The country will have to rebuild, and people are needed to get the economy going again.”

“We have to draw strength and encouragement from the positive shifts we are seeing whilst, as employers and business owners, to continue to address employment gaps as far as humanly possible,” concludes Privett.

References:
¹ https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/526828/south-africas-average-wage-is-rising-heres-why-that-might-not-be-a-good-thing/
² https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/526828/south-africas-average-wage-is-rising-heres-why-that-might-not-be-a-good-thing/
³ https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/529254/in-demand-jobs-in-south-africa-the-skills-companies-are-looking-for-right-now/