Work from home: Job sectors with the most demand for remote workers

The Information Technology (IT) sector is still on the forefront of remote work, holding the most remote vacancies across the South African job sector, according to the CareerJunction Employment Insights Report.

The report offers an analysis of the supply as well as demand trends in the online job market, to represent online labour dynamics in South Africa.

The IT job sector is at the forefront for remote job opportunities followed by Business & Management; Sales; Finance; and Admin, Office & Support roles.

Here is a look at the distribution of remote vacancies across various job sectors:

- Information Technology: 57%

- Business & Management: 14% 

- Sales: 6%

- Admin, Office & Support: 5%

- Finance: 5%

- Architecture & Engineering: 3%

- Marketing: 2%

- Design, Media & Arts: 1%

- Education, Training & Library: 1%

- Manufacturing & Assembly: 1%

Looking at the local South African job market, there has been a decline in vacancies which offer remote or hybrid working options since 2023.

According to the report, 4.3% of all jobs were remote or hybrid positions in 2023 while in 2024 there were only 3.7% of jobs allocated to hybrid or fully remote job roles.

Remote work in the IT sector showed growth, increasing from 2.3% in 2019 to 11.5% in 2024 while the top three job roles with the most remote career opportunities include: Technical / Business Architecture (17%) Software Development (15%) and UX / GUI Design 15%.

For the Sales job sector, remote work opportunities have grown from 0.7% in 2019 to 2.8% in 2024. The top job roles with the most remote career opportunities include: Travel Agent (6%) and Telesales / Telemarketing (5%).

Admin, Office & Support work from home job opportunities rose from 0.6% in 2019 to 2.4% in 2024 while the jobs roles that had the most remote work opportunities are: Client / Customer Support (5%) and Personal Assistant (5%).

In the Business & Management sector remote work roles increased from 0.6% in 2019 to 2.3% in 2024. Job roles that have the most work opportunities include: Change Management (11%) Business Owner / Entrepreneur (10%) and Organisational Design (10%).

The Design, Media & Arts sector saw remote work opportunities grew from 0.8% in 2019 to 5.1% in 2024 while Journalism / Writing / Editing (10%) Web Design / Multimedia / 3D Design (8%) and Graphic / Print / Packaging Design (5%) were the job roles with the most work opportunities. 

Remote work opportunities in the Finance sector rose from 0.2% in 2019 to 1.3% in 2024 while the jobs role that had the most remote work opportunities was External Auditing (4%).

According to the report, these are the job sectors where remote work is unheard of: Building & Construction; Cleaning, Maintenance & Repair; Manufacturing & Assembly; Medical & Health; Restaurant & Hospitality; Transportation; Warehousing & Logistics.

IOL Business