Nicola Mawson
More than 60% of South African companies see skills gaps as a key barrier to business transformation by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Future of Jobs Report 2025, released today.
The report, which has been published twice a year for the past decade, provides insights into the emerging jobs landscape for the 2025-2030 period. It was compiled based on the perspectives of more than 1 000 employers, which represent more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies.
The WEF jobs report comes at a time when youth employment is a serious issue, with 34.2% of South Africa’s young people between the ages of 18 and 34 not being in employment, education or training as of the third quarter of last year. This compares with an overall unemployment rate of 32.1%, according to the latest Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) figures.
The unemployment rate among working age South Africans is highest for those without a matric qualification, while those with a tertiary qualification were less likely to be unemployed, Stats SA’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey shows.
Overall, the WEF said: “Technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition – individually and in combination – are among the major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030.”
Locally, it also noted that a third of companies planning to expand their talent pool and improve skills matching in an environment of rapid technology change aimed to remove degree requirements, creating more accessible pathways to emerging jobs.
The WEF’s report noted that with jobs such as and Machine Learning Specialists as well as Robotics Engineers on the rise, companies were planning to upskill employees and hire talent with new skills to meet evolving business needs.
ICT industry veteran commentator, Adrian Schofield, said that changes in technology and the increasing impact of introducing AI and machine learning across a diverse range of industrial, commercial and social activities were shifting the spectrum of skills demand.
“In my opinion, there are two main factors that are significantly holding back South Africa’s ability to adapt to these changes and to take advantage of the potential positive contribution to the economy and the quality of life,” he said.
The first factor Schofield highlighted was the continuing poor quality of basic education, leaving young people unable to gain access to employment or become entrepreneurs.
“For more than a century, South Africa has failed to provide a standard of education in government schools that is the fundamental human right for all children and the essential building block for a just society,” he said.
The second issue Schofield highlighted was the stagnant economy. South Africa’s gross domestic product declined 0.3% in the third quarter of last year after a restated 0.3% in the prior quarter.
Leanne Emery-Hunter, the chief operations officer at the Youth Employment Service (YES), said South Africa was experiencing a critical skills shortage across almost all sectors, with an urgent need for skills in the IT and finance sectors.
“The crux of the problem lies in a misalignment between the skills South African employers demand, and the skills our young people possess,” she said.
Concurring with Schofield, she added that “we know that our education system is failing to equip our youth with the practical skills and industry knowledge needed to hit the ground running”.
Emery-Hunter said this mismatch created a vicious cycle.
“Not only is our economy not growing fast enough to create enough jobs for young people to be absorbed into the labour market, but young people also lack the skills for available jobs, exacerbating the crisis,” she said.
“Even if we were somehow able to fix some of our structural problems and our economy started to grow more rapidly, many businesses would not have the skills they need to be competitive.”
BUSINESS REPORT