The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle-East based on a real-time review of tens of thousands of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career Web sites and online job listings. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.
“We continue to see a slowdown in the job market in the region, as evidenced by the MEI index which has almost halved from 24 percent year on year growth in September 2015 to 14 percent in October 2015.”
“This slowdown is reflected throughout the region, including the UAE market. This slowdown in online job demand is in line with industry reports about the economic slowdown in the country, triggered by the weak oil prices which are impacting the non-oil sector as well; the gradual fiscal tightening, and the softening of real estate prices in Dubai,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).
The job market is not all bleak – we have good news for those looking for a job in the healthcare sector in the UAE, which has grown at 34% year on year as compared to the same period last year. According to the Ventures Middle East Onsite report, the UAE is building more than 20 hospitals to care of the half a million medical tourists that are expected by 2020, with medical revenues to hit $300 million by 2016,” added Modi.
“The second and third top growth industries in the UAE are consumer goods / FMCG / Textiles / Gems & Jewellery, as well as the Retail / Trade and Logistics. With online job demand growing 32% and 30% respectively, year on year.
“Occupation wise, employers in the UAE are hiring professionals specialized in sales and business development roles (up 53% year on year), HR and Administrative roles (up 31% year on year) and healthcare roles (up 22% year on year).
“Overall, the UAE is the third best performing country in terms of job demand, which is up 18 percent in October 2015, compared to the same month last year. Recruitment activity in Saudi Arabia has slipped below the year-ago level, leaving it at the bottom of the chart when looking at the online activity country wise, compared to other monitored Middle East countries. Kuwait on the other hand, led all countries with a 23 percent year-on-year growth. The country has been charting robust annual growth rate since August 2015 and job opportunities have grown 30 percent since July 2015,” continued Modi.
