Several immigration experts and surveys have shown that the global demand for skilled South Africans is growing, especially for critical skills such as doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, and IT professionals.
Combining this demand with South Africa’s poor economic growth, high unemployment, stagnant salary growth, and political uncertainty, you have a situation where young, talented South Africans are leaving.
While South Africa’s economy stagnates, other countries’ economies continue to grow, including their populations; these countries include Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and even the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
With this growth comes the increased demand for critical skills.
According to Germany‘s statistics, projections indicate that by 2035, Germany’s ageing population will face a shortage of 7 million skilled workers.
The nation is experiencing a deficit of skilled workers, particularly in rapidly growing sectors such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
The German Economic Institute (IW) reported a shortage of 320,000 STEM specialists in the country.
As a result, the number of foreign STEM employees in Germany reached 202,000, marking a remarkable 190% increase since 2012 - which includes South Africans.
According to Studying-in-Germany.org, the top five most in-demand job sectors are Engineering, Information Technology (IT), Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Data Science and Analytics, and robotics and Automation.
The UAE jobs market has shown resilience and growth in the post-pandemic years, with unemployment down to 2.75% in the country.
Conversely, the strength of the economy has revealed key shortages in the availability of the talent pool in the country.
According to a report by hiring consultancy firm Cooper Fitchm, amid the country’s growth of start-ups and businesses, business, human resource, and marketing professionals are at the top of the list.
Canada is actively recruiting foreign skilled healthcare and Information Technology (IT) professionals, including South Africans.
Canada has noted that persistent staffing shortages in the healthcare sector following the pandemic have led some organisations, including certain provincial government agencies, to rely more on foreign workers to fill positions in clinics, hospitals, and senior care facilities nationwide.
Canadian immigration consultant Nicholas Avramis from Beaver Immigration said he has seen a 50% spike in interest from doctors and nurses who want to immigrate to Canada.
The same goes for IT specialists.
Avramis noted that while all these northern and developed countries have some varying shortages on certain skills, they’re all hunting for teachers, IT specialists, and healthcare professionals (nurses and doctors).
“There is a race to recruit healthcare and other professionals in the Global North (Canada, France, UK, UAE, Qatar, etc.),” Avramis said.
Considering these in-demand professions, BusinessTech looked at the annual salary ranges of the in-demand jobs in these countries as outlined by recruitment firm Talent.com, as well as relevant local sources.
Job Country Average annual salary
Data Scientist Germany €115,921 (R2.3 million)
Web Developer Germany €92,064 (R1.8 million)
Civil Engineer Germany €80,341 (R1.6 million)
Marketing manager UAE AED150,000 (R751,000)
Human Resources (HR) UAE AED106,450 (R533,000)
Sales UAE AED 48,000 (R240,500)
Business system analyst administrator Canada $90,000 (R1.2 million)
Nurse Canada $72,936 (R971,000)
General physician (doctor) Canada $107,463 (R1.4 million)
*Conversions in rands are accurate as of 24 July 2024.
Why South Africans are leaving
According to a survey conducted by the Inclusive Society Institute (ISI), economic and personal well-being considerations mainly drove South Africans who indicated their intention to emigrate.
23.18% of South Africans who indicated that they were considering emigration cited better job opportunities as the rationale for their consideration, while 9.79% suggested overall better opportunities.
9.69% cited a better life/standard of living as the reason. A failing South African state and lousy governance were the other contenders in the top five.
Globally, young professionals (up to 30 years old) are the most mobile, with 73% willing to move abroad for work, compared to the average of 63%.
South Africa has a much higher mobility rate than the global average, with 79.5% of South African respondents stating that they’d be willing to move and work abroad.
This number shoots to 84% when considering young South Africans.
Other incentives, such as favourable tax regimes, better pay, and recognised qualifications, are also big draws.
Commenting on the reasons these doctors and nurses are choosing Canada, Avramis said the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada recognises South Africa’s healthcare education - meaning they don’t need to get re-certified.
Germany offers access to Europe, while the UAE, on the other hand, has the most competitive tax rates in the world and a highly diversified economy with a growing number of South African expat communities.