Thabo Mohlala
IT Related Skills Scarce and in Demand
Information technology (IT) related skills are scarce skills in South Africa (SA) labour market, according to CareerJunction’s Employment Insights report (CJR) for November 2023. This includes software development, database design, systems analysis, data analysis and data warehousing.
The report is credible information source, providing comprehensive data for job seekers, staffing agencies and employers regarding labour supply and trends in demand. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has already highlighted the demand for IT and data-related skills in its 2020 employment report. As with CareerJunction’s report, the WEF report was also based on data analysis of recruitment trends over a period of six months and investigated the latest professions in highest demand with limited or scarce talent pools.
High Incomes for IT Professionals
CareerJunction shared the average salary ranges for IT jobs:
- Software development – R40,000 to R60,000 per month
- Technical/Business architecture – R65,000 to R90,000 per month
- Database design/development/administration – R45,000 to R65,000 per month
- Systems analysis – R40,000 to R50,000 per month
- Data analysis/warehousing – R40,000 to R60,000 per month
- Business analysis – R41,667 to R60,000 per month
Provincial Levels of Demand
The CJR highlighted the provincial demand for each skill by province. For instance, software development professionals are very high demand in Gauteng and the Western Cape. However, in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape demand is a bit down.
The same pattern of demand for skills in data analysis and warehousing and business analysis skills are also in very high demand in Gauteng, but is lower in the Western Cape and KZN. Gauteng and the Western Cape again showed high demand for technical and business architecture professionals. The same goes for database design, development and administration skills, as well as systems analysts.
Jobs on the decline
Last September, the CJR also identified jobs at risk of becoming redundant by 2030, largely due to the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution which requires new IT skill sets. These included among others bank tellers, travel consultants, retail assistants, data capturers, dispatch managers, librarians, telemarketers and insurance brokers.
Over the last five years, employment trend painted a gloomy picture highlighting the decline in the following jobs:
- -58% demand for bank tellers;
- -21% for travel consultants;
- -18% for shop/retail assistants;
- -32% for telemarketers;
- -19% for data capturers;
- -26% for dispatch managers;
- -16% for librarians;
- -27% for insurance brokers.
DHET highlights Occupations in High Demand
Given the high unemployment rate in SA, particularly among the youth, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) gazetted a List of Occupations in High Demand with the purpose of supporting interventions to grow the economy, improving post-school education and training system to address these scarce skills in South Africa needed in the labour market. In its report, DHET stated that “information about occupations in high demand provides useful insights into the skills needs of the economy and society,” especially essential in the context of the SA labour market with its sky- high levels of unemployment on the one hand and skills shortages on the other.
However, according to CareerJunction, not all is gloom and doom. “While millions of jobs will be lost to automation, there will be an increased demand for highly skilled professionals to work in the growing fields created by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
