Study: South Africa low on remote job listings in Africa despite local growth

South Africa has a relatively small share of remote job vacancies on LinkedIn compared with other African countries, according to new global research even as local recruitment platforms and employers report growth in remote roles.

What the global index found

Remitly’s Remote Jobs Index 2026 analysed around 7.8 million LinkedIn job listings during May and calculated the proportion of listings in each market tagged as remote. The company found that 17.6% of South African listings were advertised as remote, the lowest proportion among the African countries included in the study.

The study reported higher remote proportions elsewhere in Africa: 19.5% in Ghana and 21.8% in Egypt. At the top of the continent’s rankings were Equatorial Guinea (98.5%), the Republic of the Congo (95.4%) and Cape Verde (94.7%). Other high-ranking markets included Sierra Leone (92.4%) and Ethiopia (83.5%).

How South Africa compares globally

Remitly’s analysis shows South Africa’s share of remote-tagged vacancies is higher than several large economies included in the index. The study found 8.4% of US vacancies, 10.1% in the UK and 7.6% in Australia were tagged as remote. Several European markets recorded lower shares: Germany 6%, France 4.7% and the Netherlands 4.6%. China had the lowest proportion in the global study at 2.7%.

Remitly also noted that some countries typically associated with flexible lifestyles do not necessarily have large proportions of remote listings, citing Thailand at 7.9% and Singapore at 6.6%.

Local recruitment platforms report rising remote opportunities

Separate South African recruitment data cited in the source shows remote work remains a relatively small part of the local market but is growing. Pnet’s 2025 Job Market Trends data found around 3.6% of vacancies on its platform offered remote or hybrid work.

Pnet’s July 2026 Job Market Trends Report reported that remote employment in South Africa reached its highest level on record in the first half of 2026, with remote opportunities up 28% compared with the first half of 2025 and 41% over two years.

“Remote employment has cemented itself as a permanent feature of the job market as organisations continue to digitise their operations and embrace new ways of working,”

Anja Bates, head of Data at Pnet, said in the report. Pnet’s data showed strong growth across business & management, sales, and admin, office & support roles, and noted marketing and design & media had doubled the number of remote opportunities since 2024.

What the figures measure

The Remitly index measures the proportion of LinkedIn vacancies tagged as remote, not the share of people in each country who actually work from home. The study also examined entry-level vacancies and applicant numbers for recently advertised remote jobs to assess competition for remote roles.