While statistics show the youth of SA continue to bear the brunt of unemployment, the global business services (GBS) sector is making strides in creating jobs for local youth.
From October to December 2024, the GBS sector added 6 290 net new international jobs, contributing $101 million (R1.8 billion) in export revenue.
This is according to non-profit organisation Business Process Enabling South Africa’s (BPESA’s) quarterly GBS Sector Job Creation Report.
BPESA highlights that impact sourcing is a key driver of this growth. The initiative actively recruits individuals from marginalised communities, offering employment to young South Africans from low-income backgrounds.
The GBS sector, formerly classified as business process outsourcing, was identified several years ago as a key growth driver to create jobs, with a particular focus on youth and women.
Drilling down into the numbers, the report shows 92% of new hires logged for the quarter were aged between 18 and 34.
Most positions (71%) were frontline, voice-based contact centre roles, addressing global demand in sectors such as utilities and energy (30.54%), retail and e-commerce (18.30%), and telecoms (13.73%).
The UK remained the largest market for outsourced services and accounted for 48% of new jobs, with the US contributing 32% of new hires. Additional jobs logged were for Australia (12.7%), other countries (New Zealand and Canada 6%), Europe (1%) and other African countries (0.30%).
The Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng continued to drive significant job creation within the GBS sector, reveals the report.
The Western Cape led with 3 123 new jobs, accounting for 49.7% of the total. KZN followed with 2 070 jobs (32.9%), while Gauteng contributed 987 jobs (15.7%). The Eastern Cape added 110 new positions, representing 1.7% of the quarterly total.
BPESA CEO Reshni Singh comments: “The continued growth and job creation are a testament to our industry’s commitment to building careers for South Africans, especially our youth and those from marginalised communities.
“We are encouraged by ongoing discussions with the DTIC [Department of Trade, Industry and Competition] regarding a revised incentives package for the industry. We remain confident that with the right level of support, the sector will drive further economic upliftment, while showcasing SA’s distinctive flair in servicing international customers.”
From January to December 2024, the sector accounted for 20 518 net new international jobs, contributing $328 million (R6 billion) in export revenue.
In addition, a total of 18 351 youth jobs were logged in the GBS sector for the entire 2024, according to BPESA.
“On average, youth jobs accounted for about 89.25% of new hires for the year, demonstrating the attractiveness of this growth sector for its youth job creation potential.”
Further insights show that all four active GBS provinces contributed to the total number of 20 518 new jobs servicing international markets in 2024.
The Western Cape witnessed significant growth for the year with 9 549 jobs posted in 2024 (compared to 8 800 positions logged in 2023). KZN recorded 6 908 new jobs (compared to 7 635 in 2023). Gauteng recorded 3 810 new jobs for the year (compared to 2 872 in 2023). Eastern Cape recorded 251 new jobs for the year (compared to no jobs created in 2023).
When analysing the entire 2024 period, BPESA notes the utilities and energy industry (27.12% with 5 564 people), the retail and e-commerce industry (18.43% with 3 781 people), insurance industry (17.5% with 3 590 people) and telecoms (14.01% with 2 874 new hires) were the largest international vertical industries serviced from SA.
Other global vertical industries serviced from the country in 2024 included banking and financial services (12.15% with 2 493 employees), travel and leisure (4.7% with 964 workers), and media and publishing (1.91% with 392 positions).
In addition, new jobs were created in logistics (1.51% with 309 positions), healthcare and medical (231), technology (174) and education (146).
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