Local job market has immense potential

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30 April 2009
The UAE remains the largest job generator in the GCC despite reports of lay-offs in the country, exclusive research by Emirates Business has revealed.

Half of all vacancies advertised on four leading regional recruitment websites over the past three months were listed in the UAE making it the Gulf's most lucrative market for jobseekers.

Emirates Business studied 7,675 job openings posted on bayt.com, monstergulf.com, careerjunctionme.com and gulftalent.com and found that 3,754 or approximately 50 per cent were in the UAE.

Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab market, came second with 2,007 openings, or about 26 per cent. Qatar was third with 997 listed positions (about 13 per cent), followed by Kuwait with 527 (about seven per cent) and Bahrain with 206 (three per cent). Oman was last with just 184 positions, contributing two per cent of the jobs on offer.

Experts agree that despite the fact that the global economic crisis has triggered a slowdown in banking, construction and real estate activity in the UAE, the local job market has immense potential.

Ian Giulianotti, Associate Director at Nadia Recruitment, said: "Since the beginning of this year 85 per cent of adverts posted by Nadia have been for the UAE, five per cent have been for Iraq and eight per cent for Saudi Arabia.

"The UAE offers the most number of vacancies because of the lifestyle the country offers. Even in the current environment we have seen only a marginal drop as far as filling vacancies is concerned.

"We have seen an eight per cent drop in the number of vacancies in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period last year but our revenues are up three per cent. We've done fewer deals but they have been of higher value."

Patrick Luby, Managing Director of Manpower Middle East, is optimistic about the job market in Abu Dhabi. However, he maintains that Dubai is experiencing slower growth. "Dubai is still growing, albeit at a much slower pace than before, and after a slight downturn in recruitment activity in Abu Dhabi at the start of the year we are already seeing vacancy numbers increasing in the emirate.

"Despite the global economic slowdown, Saudi Arabia is actually expanding, and rapidly. We are experiencing a significant increase in the number of companies expanding their workforce and hiring new staff in the Kingdom. Qatar and Bahrain also remain steady in terms of companies' recruitment requirements."

A country-by-country breakdown of jobs posted on gulftalent.com, a leading recruitment portal, between late January and now reveals that the largest number were posted for positions in the UAE.

Figures on the website show that 1,275 jobs were posted from the UAE. In comparison there were 587 vacancies in Saudi Arabia, 281 in Qatar, 167 in Kuwait, 96 in Oman and 90 in Bahrain.

A similar pattern is seen on monstergulf.com, another online recruitment website. Between February 26 and April 26 the UAE posted 982 jobs, while Saudi Arabia listed 356 jobs, Qatar 249, Kuwait 106, Bahrain 60 and Oman 49.

Contrary to media reports about a shortage of jobs in the banking and construction sectors, the Emirates Business survey reveals that the largest number of job openings in the banking sector is in the UAE.

Of the 45 bank jobs posted on monstergulf.com, 19 vacancies are in the UAE followed by nine in Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait have four vacancies each, while Bahrain has only three. And the UAE scores highest even in the finance sector. Of the 150 jobs posted, 83 positions have been placed from the UAE. Saudi Arabia is second with 33 vacancies. Qatar has 15 jobs, while Kuwait has seven, Oman six and Bahrain five.

Giulianotti added: "Within the UAE there is demand for retail bankers, good sales personnel, engineers and in the manufacturing sector."

Within the construction sector, the UAE again tops the list of jobs on offer from February of this year. Of the 250 jobs listed, 139 are in the UAE, 38 in Saudi Arabia, 48 in Qatar, six in Oman, four in Kuwait and three in Bahrain.

For jobs in human resources, the UAE again offers the most opportunities. Of the 127 jobs listed on monstergulf.com, 69 are in the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia with 29. Qatar has 12, Bahrain five, Kuwait six and Oman one.

Even in oil and gas, a very strong sector in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, UAE has more job listings on monstergulf.com. There are a total of 205 listed for this sector and 97 of them are in the UAE. Qatar has 61 jobs listed, followed by 31 in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait has seven, Oman four and Bahrain two. The retail sector also offers most opportunities in the UAE. Of the 44 listed vacancies, UAE has 17, Kuwait 10, Saudi Arabia seven and Qatar four.

But the UAE's traditional growth sector - real estate - seems to have taken a beating as the number of jobs listed for the sector here is lower than in Qatar, according to monstergulf.com. Of the 33 jobs listed, Qatar is top with 19, the UAE has 12 and Saudi Arabia has two.

The largest proportion of jobs listings on careerjunctionme.com came from the UAE. According to the site, 738 jobs were listed from the UAE between March 29 and April 26. In comparison, there were only 183 jobs listed from Saudi Arabia, 107 from Qatar, 29 from Oman, 27 from Bahrain and 22 from Kuwait during the same period.

Emirates Business surveyed 2,271 jobs listed on bayt.com since the end of March 2009 across different sectors. Of these, 881 were in Saudi Arabia, 759 were in the UAE, 360 in Qatar, 232 in Kuwait, 29 in Bahrain and 10 in Oman.

Going by the job postings on bayt.com, the UAE beats other countries as far as jobs in human resources, construction, banking and real estate are concerned. However, for oil and gas, telecommunications, IT, retail and accounting there are more vacancies in Saudi Arabia on the website.

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By Shuchita Kapur 

© Emirates Business 24/7 2009