10,000 jobs currently available to South Africans on Gumtree
Gumtree has helped fill more than 100,000 job vacancies in the past year
SA’s unemployment figure has officially surpassed the 30% mark according to Trading Economics, with experts extremely pessimistic about the country’s short and longterm economic growth prospects.
Economist Mike Schussler said unemployment could soar past 50% if economic contraction follows the dramatic trend experienced in the US.
“The last time we had this decline in the world economy [in 2008], SA lost 1.3-million jobs in 18 months. I believe we will lose more now; we already believe that this recession will have a much greater negative effect on our economy compared to the previous one,” said Schussler.
However, Claire Cobbledick, general manager at Gumtree SA offers a contrarian view to the all-encompassing doom and gloom. “The Corona-coaster, as we have dubbed it, is a constant ride of highs and lows, but our internal data indicates some encouraging markers on the job vacancy front,” she says.
Cobbledick says that in 2019, Gumtree recorded about one hundred thousand employment opportunities on the site. There are also currently just under 10,000 live jobs advertised on the website from a cross-section of industries, and she expects to see a rise in these numbers in the coming months.
The top 10 job specs on Gumtree currently include the following:
- 1,477 sales jobs;
- 961 jobs in construction and trade;
- 614 driving and logistics positions;
- 526 accounting and finance jobs;
- 514 manufacturing jobs;
- 505 general work opportunities;
- 468 healthcare and nursing jobs;
- 445 IT and tech roles;
- 413 advertising and marketing opportunities; and
- 381 admin jobs.
Barrie Swart, Gumtree operations head says, “The best way to stimulate the economy is by supporting small to medium enterprises (SMEs).”
Pre-Covid-19 data suggested that 525,000 SMEs employ six-million South Africans but this figure is likely to be negatively impacted due to the knock-on effect of lockdown.
Swart says, “Gumtree offers a great way for companies that have vacancies to connect with people who are looking for new employment opportunities. We believe our technology supports our communities by streamlining the recruitment and job-seeking processes, and helps small businesses to keep going – and even growing – during this unusual business period.”
This article was paid for by Gumtree SA.