These are the places and jobs attracting South Africa’s middle class

Where and how middle class is employed was the more interesting change in 2022 in a new survey based on a sample of more than 33,000 respondents representing the 12.8 million South African adults living in households with monthly income exceeding R10K.

The BrandMapp 2022 survey shows that the country’s workplaces are in a state of flux in line with global trends, says Brandon de Kock, director of storytelling at BrandMapp.

“It is important to note that government employment is static with the same 29% of mid- and top-income earners in state jobs this year.

“However, there is a significant shift away from employment in large companies with over 1 000 employees to smaller concerns. Is this because the corporate behemoths are less inclined to enable the more flexible working conditions that employees want?”

Before the disruption of the pandemic, the office as we knew it already started changing with a sudden mass exodus of workers from the workplace which only accelerated the development and uptake of technologies that make it possible for a vast number of employees capable of remote work to work from home and proved more quickly on a global scale that people working from their homes are still productive.

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Are the employed middle class returning to the office?

“While there is much to be said in favour of the five-day-a-week return to the workplace and all the benefits of in-person co-mingling with teammates and colleagues, many remote-capable employees have had longstanding yearnings and aspirations for more flexible working conditions, or at very least what has become know a ‘hybrid working’ model.”

De Kock says this is a trend that is measured for the first time this year in the BrandMapp survey.

“Perhaps as expected, the survey reveals a slight drop in full-time employment compared to 2021. There has also been a subtle shift towards self-employment and part-time work, with a minimal rise in unemployment.”

He says given the current economic hardships, these changes are slight enough to still argue for the resilience and robustness of the country’s tax-paying middle-class.

“It is a picture that is totally in line with the latest Quarterly Labour Force survey showing that while unemployment is rising as a percentage of total population, we are still adding hundreds of thousands of jobs back into the economy.”

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The rise of hybrid work?

In line with global working trends showing an average of 39% of the world’s workforce practicing          hybrid work, BrandMapp confirms a limited return to the five-day office week.

“Almost half of the middle-class earning under R40 000 a month has returned to the pre-pandemic work routine, while 36% of them have become hybrid workers.”

De Kock says it is almost exactly the other way round for the top earners, with only 37% of them in their workplaces all week and 46% splitting their time.

“Some of them are no doubt enjoying the peace and quiet and better coffee that comes with working from home for at least part of the working week.”

This matches other data coming out of developed countries showing that more executive-level workers are benefitting from hybrid work models while the workers have been summoned back to their desks.

With employee demand for flexible working conditions front and centre and hybrid work options touted as one of the important ways that employers can compete for top talent, De Kock says it is helpful to know what kind of companies are enabling this.

De Kock says the data suggests that the largest South African companies are currently better enablers of hybrid and remote work than their medium-to-large counterparts. You are more likely to have to return permanently to your workplace if you are working for a company with more than 10 but less than 1 000 employees.

“For the time being, it seems that the corporate behemoths are not inflexible employers and they rather seem to have their fingers on the pulse of the future of work and are better at allowing remote-capable employees to do their thing.”

De Kock says considering the return to the corporate five-day-week in the office for South African managers, senior and middle management reflect the global average, which is a 44% full-time return to the workplace.

“However, our junior managers are clearly holding down the fort. This comes at a time when there is a growing corporate call for all workers to make a permanent return to the office, perhaps indicating that there is a case of ‘do what I say, not what I do’ at play at the top management level.”

He says it is striking to see how many careers were traditionally office-bound roles before Covid. “As they do, the crisis delivered opportunities for discovery and learning.

Many more workers have lived proof that they are remote-capable and amongst them are those who now also know that remote work suits them better than being in the office.

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Technology the great enabler

Technology has clearly been a great enabler. De Kock says since BrandMapp includes a comprehensive view of digital habits, the data also shows how usage of virtual conferencing and meeting platforms has continued to grow.

“The Zoom-boom was not a stopgap; it was a meaningful trend. We measured 42% of the total middle-class-and-up workforce saying that they regularly use platforms like Zoom, Teams and Google Meets and there is no reason to think it is a behaviour that is going to change any time soon.”

De Kock points out that it is notable that 58% of middle-class South Africans embracing hybrid work are employed in the country’s financial services industry, arguably the ultimate, traditional cubicle-dweller workplaces.

“Who says you cannot teach an old dog a new trick? On the lower end of this scale, it is also significant that one third of middle-class-and-up South African government employees are looking at hybrid work options.”

He says this data points to an argument that the establishments we are inclined to consider the most inflexible and resistant to change, are actually riding the waves of Covid impacts and making strides when it comes to adapting to and adopting new modes of work.