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South Africa is experiencing a critical skills shortage across almost all sectors, according to Executive Placements, specifically in the IT, finance sectors and health. The Department of Home Affairs Government Gazette has issued a list of critical skills needed in South Africa. Recruiters and HR specialists in South Africa and around the world are facing difficulties when filling vacancies for jobs in South Africa that require critical skills. This unfortunately leads to staff shortages, which directly impacts business growth and affects the country’s GDP.
Foreign skilled professionals
The Department of Home Affairs list determines skills as well as qualifications that are deemed to be critical to jobs in South Africa. This can allow you an application for a critical skills visa or an application for a permanent residence permit. The objective is to attract foreign skilled professionals and encourage them to migrate to South Africa to support local businesses and industries. This will not only further careers but also allows for a high quality of life in a stunning country.
Daad Scholarship
Daad Scholarship issued a “list of 41 countries which are facing skill shortage issues in 2023 as per the new survey report published by manpower in 2023. Meanwhile, as you read this report you may also realize that the country which is facing a high skill shortage problem might be producing more high-paying jobs for certain skill shortage skills so that means as a job seeker you will have more chances to land a high-paying job in 2023.” South Africa currently stands at 76% skills shortage.
Skills shortages in South Africa
Skills shortages in South Africa are amplified by the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon (skilled workers leaving for overseas countries), which has created a significant bottleneck for South African businesses.
There are two significant contributors to the local scarcity of certain skills:
- Expensive tertiary education results in a smaller proportion of the population receiving tertiary education or even a decent basic education.
- Low wages have been resulting in highly skilled workers leaving South African employers or applying for transfers for better-paid jobs and opportunities overseas. And also, to join other family members.
Information technology, finance sectors and medical and health have been hit hardest by skills shortage, but the shortages are being felt almost across the board. Moreover, including in Marketing, Design, Media & Arts, Business & Management and Engineering.
IT sector
Looking at the IT sector, in particular, businesses and recruiters are particularly struggling to source skilled talent in:
- Software Development
- Technical / Business Architecture
- Database Design / Development / Administration
- Systems Analysis
- Data Analysis / Data Warehousing
- Business Analysis
- Design, Media & Arts, Web Design
- Multimedia, 3D Design, Graphic, Print, Packaging Design
Finance sector
In the Finance sector, there is a skills shortage of professionals in:
- External Auditing
- Taxation
- Actuarial Management / Administration
- Financial Analysis and
- Cost & Management Accounting
Medical & Health sector
Within the Medical & Health sector, there is currently a severe shortage of skills for nursing and professional caregiving staff.
- Zoologist
- Microbiologist
- Marketing / Product Management
- Environmental Scientist
- Aeronautical Engineer
- Naval Architect
- Metallurgist
- Energy Engineer
- Policy Analyst
- Air Traffic Controller
- Millwright
- Industrial Pharmacist
- Civil/Structural Engineers
The scarcity of skills can be determined by consistently low application rates for certain jobs in South Africa as well as recruiters reposting the same vacancy advert multiple times.
There has been a slight improvement in sourcing candidates for certain roles in IT but when it comes to nursing, there is still a large gap. “The country has an estimated shortage of between 26,000 and 62,000 nurses, and a large number are expected to retire by 2030. Netcare has the capacity to train over 3,500 nurses per year but is only accredited to take about 10% of that number. Recruitment conditions for Medical and Healthcare are becoming even more difficult.
Different regions in South Africa
Looking at the different regions in South Africa, businesses in provinces with relatively high economic activity (like Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal) are more likely to experience recruitment difficulties for certain skills.
The Western Cape seems to be more affected by critical skills shortages than other provinces, with the sectors within the Western Cape experiencing the most critical recruitment difficulties being IT, Finance, Design, Media & Arts. As well as, Marketing, Medial & Health and Business & Management. Gauteng has a generally higher remuneration than the rest of the country, so tends to draw more skilled workers.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal seem to experience IT skills shortages in particular – meanwhile, aside from IT skills shortages. Further, the Eastern Cape appears to lack Medical & Health skills as well as Finance skills.
Additionally, The Northwest is the only province showing recruitment difficulties for teachers.
However, it seems that across the whole of South Africa there is a severe shortage in software development skills.