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Dubai – The consumer goods industry recorded the highest growth on the Monster Employment Index (MEI) at an average year-on-year rise of 14 percent in the first quarter of 2017, reaching a peak of 33 percent growth in March compared March 2016.
The growth in consumer goods including FMCG, food and packaged food, home appliances, garments, textiles, leather, gems and jewellery came amid an overall slow-down in online hiring across the nation with an average of 43 percent year-on-year decline. Workers in purchase/ logistics/ supply chain occupations saw the least decline over the same period with an average year-on-year decline of about one percent.
“The results of the MEI in the first quarter of this year demonstrate that the consumer goods industry and procurement/ logistics/supply chain occupations are continuing to do well in the UAE. These are complementary findings as Purchase/ logistics/ supply chain professionals are needed to help make consumer goods available to consumers, therefore, the results of online hiring in both these sectors suggests that consumer confidence remains positive and the appetite for consumer goods is still high,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com, APAC & Middle East.
Among the industries to record the most decline were banking/ financial services, insurance (BFSI) and retail/ trade/ logistics with an average of about 27 percent and 25 percent decline in online postings respectively. Finance/ accounting were among the occupations to register the most decline with approximately 48 percent throughout Q1 of 2017.
“The blatant difference in online hiring activity in the purchase/ logistics/ supply chain occupations and the retail/ trade /logistics industry suggests a trend towards in-house recruitment of professionals from these sectors. That is, companies from different industries are looking to recruit staff to fulfil purchase/ logistics/ supply chain requirements and are becoming less reliant on retail/ trade /logistics companies,” added Modi.
From the countries monitored by the MEI, based on a real-time review of job opportunities from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings, Oman registered the least decline with an average of about five percent year-on-year decline.
At a regional level, online hiring rates in the consumer goods industry were the highest with an average of 17 percent year-on-year growth during Q1, while the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry registered the highest decline of 40 percent followed by hospitality at 36 percent decline.
Across occupations in the region, purchase/ logistics/ supply chain registered the least decline at an average of three percent throughout Q1 2017 closely followed by customer service at six percent average year-on-year decline. The lowest performing occupations in the MEI throughout Q1 2017 were finance/ accounting and HR/ admin at 54 and 48 percent average year-on-year decline respectively.
The Monster Employment Index was recalibrated with a new baseline of four years starting February 2017. The new base period now reflects data from October 2010 to September 2014.
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© Press Release 2017
