The CareerJunction Index shows recruitment dropped by 28 percent in the last week of March.
According to the CareerJunction Index (CJI), recruiting activity slowed down by 28 percent in the fourth week of March when the national lockdown was announced and implemented. The JCI represents online labour dynamics in South Africa by providing a detailed analysis of the relative ratio of supply and demand in the online job market.
The CJI is based on comprehensive data gathered from the CareerJunction website and this particular edition of the index covers the weeks before and after South Africa’s lockdown.
It reflects that job search activity declined by 14 percent during March while hiring activity decreased by 11 percent. Even though hiring activity remained relatively strong throughout the first three weeks during March, it was significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, the demand for some skills has continued. Software development skills, in particular, remained in high demand.
“Despite the national lockdown, demand for software developers continued to grow throughout March 2020. As a result, job advertising for software developer roles increased by 27 percent from February to March 2020,” reads the executive summary.
Meanwhile, hiring activity for middle management decreased slightly during March when the demand for middle management roles decreased by about 53 percent with the implementation of the national lockdown. Some of this may be attributed to the impact of the lockdown after many ‘non-essential’ industries and businesses were shut down, putting financial pressure on employers, employees, and all their families.
Sales skills are still highly demanded and recruitment activity remained steadfast on average despite a drop in hiring of activity for sales consultants during the fourth week of March when the national lockdown was implemented.
