South Africa’s tech jobs market is showing signs of strong recovery after a three-year slump that began in 2022.
This is according to the November 2025 Pnet Job Market Trends Report, which shows that technology-job vacancies have increased 18% year on year for the year to end-October.
“We are recording a notable shift in the market following several years of local and international headlines about large-scale layoffs across IT companies,” said Anja Bates, head of data at Pnet.
“The need for experienced and specialised tech professionals stabilised at a lower level for a while. Now, the latest job market data points to renewed growth in technology, spurred by cloud and AI adoption.”
In compiling the latest report, Pnet altered its definition of “job market activity” to include searches by prospective employers on its candidate database, which houses some six million CVs of South African job seekers. According to Pnet, the use of candidate database search activity alongside the traditional summary of job adverts paints a more comprehensive picture of market demand.
The last time South Africa’s tech job market peaked was on the back of hiring that was driven by the boom in working from home during Covid-19. Hiring activity in October 2025 increased 3% year on year, with vacancy advertising rising 1% year on year and 6% month on month. Candidate database searches increased 6% year on year and 9% month on month.
Highest demand
Pnet said different tech jobs are growing at different rates, with business analysts and data analysts showing the highest demand.
“Since January 2025, vacancies for business analysts have doubled, reflecting a 102% increase. Second on the list are data-focused roles, including data scientists and data warehousing specialists. Vacancies for these professionals have increased by over 48% since January 2025,” said the report.
Read: South African employers race to hire AI talent
Other prominent roles include systems and network administrators, where demand has risen by 38% since the start of this year. Demand for software developers rose 34% over the same period.
“Software developers returned to the top 10 list of the most in-demand jobs in South Africa in October this year for the first time in three-and-a-half years. From 2018 to March 2022, ‘software developer’ was the most in-demand job role in South Africa every month,” said the report.
The top 10 tech jobs currently in highest demand, according to Pnet, are:
- Business analyst
- Data analyst
- Data engineer
- Software developer
- Full-stack developer
- Java developer
- Data scientist
- IT project manager
- C# developer
- Scrum master
With increases of 25% year on year and 17% month on month, the health and medical sector shone through as the one with the highest increases in demand for tech-related talent. The IT sector also showed strong growth, with demand rising 10% year on year and 18% month on month.
Read: The best-paid software and IT skills in South Africa
Pnet said the rise in demand for tech talent is set to intensify competition for top skills. For employers, moving quickly to streamline hiring processes, strengthen their offering to employees and actively engage candidates in high-demand roles will help secure scarce tech skills as the sector continues to recover.
The Western Cape has the highest levels of demand for IT sector talent and in-province demand rose 10% year on year in October. But the competition for IT talent is not limited to South Africa’s borders. Pnet data shows that IT professionals are the second-most desired sector by international recruiters, with business management skills being first. The demand for South African IT skills internationally rose 37% year on year.
Since technology is an enabler across all industries, the strengthening of tech hiring is an “encouraging sign” that the broader labour market is on an upward trajectory, too.
“Demand for tech talent is rising again, and our data shows recruiters where competition for scarce skills is set to intensify. For jobseekers, the data shows strong long-term career pathways in core and high-growth tech occupations. The strengthening of tech hiring is an encouraging sign for the broader labour market, and an important indicator of growing investment in digital capability across industries,” said Pnet’s Bates. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.
