The five most in-demand job roles for remote workers

Before the first Covid-19 lockdown, remote work opportunities in South Africa were rare (1,2%).

This is according to the Pnet Job Market Trends Report for March 2024.

Since before the lockdown and in the time after, the information technology sector has been at the forefront of remote work opportunities with the report showing that software development is the job position with the most remote work opportunities.

According to the report, currently, 12% of all software development vacancies that are advertised are advertised as remote or hybrid work opportunities.

In the second and third spot, respectively, in terms of remote work opportunities for specific job roles, is systems / network administration in the IT sector and middle / department management in the business and management sector.

Rounding up the top five remote job roles is data analysis / data warehousing in the IT sector and representative / sales consulting in the sales sector.

Following the onset of the lockdowns, there was significant growth in job opportunities for remote work. Now around 4% of job opportunities in the country offer remote working opportunities.

According to the report, before the Covid-19 pandemic, information technology (IT) was the only sector that offered remote work opportunities.

During the pandemic, sectors like business and management; sales; admin, office and support; and finance followed suit.

Despite the number of new remote job opportunities, the IT sector is still at the top for remote work opportunities. The IT sector is followed by business and management; sales; finance; and finally admin, office and support.

Remote work opportunities in the IT sector increased rapidly between 2020 and 2021 with around 11% IT jobs being remote work opportunities.

There was slower growth of remote work opportunities (2% to 3%) across business and management; sales; finance; and finally admin, office and support. –IOL