- Tech hiring has rebounded in South Africa in recent months, according to Pnet data.
- This follows a long period of decline, driven in part by layoffs at big tech companies.
- There has also been a sustained increase in remote working opportunities in the sector.
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Tech hiring in South Africa is rebounding after a three-year slump, according to online recruitment platform Pnet, which also reported a sustained rise in remote working opportunities in the sector.
Pnet shared data indicating that there had been an 18% increase in vacancies for technology jobs in South Africa for the year up to the end of October, compared to the same period in 2024.
Pnet has approximately 7.4 million jobseekers and over 5 000 recruiters on its database, making it a top source of hiring trends in the country.
Pnet said that tech vacancies in South Africa increased by 10% month-on-month from September to October 2025, which is another signal that there has been a “clear and sustained uplift in the sector”.
Paul Byrne, the head of data insights at Pnet, told News24 that tech hiring had been weaker in South Africa since the transition out of the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-2022.
He said mass layoffs at major tech firms from 2022 to 2024 drove the hiring slump, affecting thousands of jobs worldwide. Overhiring during the pandemic and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) spurred many of these layoffs.
“Albeit that was overseas, we definitely felt the impact here in South Africa,” said Byrne.
Byrne said the resurgence in tech hiring has been driven by demand for data, AI, and machine learning skills.
The five most in-demand roles in the sector identified by Pnet were:
Top five most in-demand tech roles
- Business analyst
- Data analyst
- Data engineer
- Software developer
- Full stack developer
Pnet data that covered the period until September 2025 also indicated the “sustained increase in remote vacancies” for local tech jobs since the end of the pandemic, said Byrne.
Pnet’s data indicated that 13% of the software developer vacancies advertised in South Africa as of the end of September were for remote positions. This includes hybrid work roles. This matches remote work levels in the IT sector in February 2022.
There was a slight dip in hiring for remote IT roles during the return-to-office push in 2023 and 2024. In February 2024, Pnet indicated that 11% of IT vacancies were for remote roles.
Interestingly, on a longer time frame, Pnet data showed that in February 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, only 2% of IT vacancies in South Africa were for remote or hybrid positions.
Companies continue to hire for remote IT roles far above the average rate in the broader job market.
Pnet said that as of September, 3.6% of all its advertised vacancies were for remote or hybrid remote roles. This is down 1.8 percentage points from the peak in the first quarter of 2022, when 5.4% of all the vacancies on Pnet’s platform were remote.
Byrne said that, anecdotally, he thinks South Africa has been a bit of an outlier in the “absolute drive” to bring everyone back to the office. He said that in Europe, for example, it is very rare at the moment for companies to be hiring for remote positions.
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