ROBERT WALTERS MIDDLE EAST JOBS INDEX – Q1 2018

  • The number of advertised job vacancies for professionals, across accountancy and finance, banking and financial services, legal and sales and marketing, in the UAE rose by 22% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to fourth quarter 2017. 

  • Job growth quarter-on-quarter in the UAE was strongest in banking and financial services (32%), with accounting and finance (26%) also seeing healthy growth.

  • The legal sector saw the highest decline in advertised jobs in the UAE (-1%).

  • Year-on-year the UAE has seen an increase of 9% of advertised jobs across, accounting and finance, banking and financial services, legal and sales and marketing.

  • The number of advertised job vacancies for professionals, across accountancy and finance, banking and financial services, legal, sales and marketing, in Saudi rose by 28% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to fourth quarter 2017.

  • Legal (55%) saw the highest increase in advertised jobs in Saudi, while accounting and finance saw the lowest percentage change at 26%.

  • Year-on-year Saudi has seen an increase in advertised jobs of 81% when comparing to quarter one of 2017.

The latest Robert Walters Middle East Jobs Index has revealed that vacancies for professionals across the Middle East increased by 25% between Q4 2017 and Q1 2018.

Jason Grundy, Country Head at Robert Walters – Middle East, comments on the regional results: 

“Good to see healthy rises in job numbers being advertised across the Middle East in the senior professional head office space”.  Saudi in particular with recent stimuli is an exciting growth market in all sectors and regions.” 

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE

“Companies in the UAE have been working on post implementation plans of  VAT in Q1 2018, creating roles in the public practice firms and in-house.

“The most in-demand roles so far this year are tax managers, financial planning and analysis and controllers. Candidates who are qualified with good enterprise resource planning (ERP) experience and mergers and acquisitions exposure, will be in high demand in 2018.”

“Nationalisation programmes dominate the region, especially in Saudi.”

BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES

“The job index reflects the sentiment across the banking sector in both UAE & KSA, a number of local banks in UAE have posted double digit growth from their quarter on quarter results.  Balance sheets are healthy, loan growth is positive and interest rates have been rising.  All accumulating in positive figures for large local banks.”

“There has been an increase in the number of international banks expanding in the Kingdom. New office openings and expansion has been prevalent over the past six months and as a by-product they need to staff these offices.”  

“We predict that this growth will continue into Q2 and steady off in Q3 which is always historically the quietist months of the year.”

ON LEGAL

“International companies are now realising the importance of having a legal function on the ground in the Middle East rather than utilising their off-shore legal resource. As laws & regulations in Dubai become more stringent and developed, western qualified lawyers with local experience are becoming increasingly  in demand.  Lawyers with 2 years experience in the region have a competitive advantage over their overseas counterparts when competing for roles at major global brands.”

“Dubai has made a conscious effort to become a hub for innovation and Fintech which has resulted in new companies opening offices in the region. This in turn has created new commercial instructions for law firms to set up companies and in-house lawyers to manage the day-to-day legal affairs of the company internally.”

“Since the turn of the year, the oil price has steadily increased which is a positive sign for the UAE economy. Oil & Gas lawyers remain in demand in the region, particularly those with experience in mergers & acquisitions.”

“We have seen a significant increase in job opportunity in Saudi Arabia. This is the beginning of the 2030 Saudi Vision to reduce their reliance on oil by diversifying the economy to develop areas such as tourism, infrastructure and education. This has resulted in a wave of new legal positions for both government entities and international companies.”

ON SALES AND MARKETING

“Sales and marketing recruitment has been stable in Q1 2018. Arabic speaking B2B sales professionals with a proven track record in the MENA region are always sought after as companies seek to improve their bottom line numbers.” 

“For marketing roles, we see social media and e-commerce experience as something our clients are asking for more and more.”

“Luxury brands are selectively hiring as the Dubai Mall expansion continues to develop and we have seen an appetite for Mandarin and Russian speaking staff.”

OVERVIEW ON SAUDI GROWTH

“There has been a positive increase in advertised jobs in Saudi in the first quarter of 2018. This is mainly driven by Vision 2030 of the Saudi government to have more Saudi nationals working and increasing the percentage of female Saudi nationals at the workplace across all industry sectors .”

“The Saudi economy is moving away from its dependence on the oil and gas sector with growing opportunities across a number of other industries like government, retail, e-commerce, and manufacturing.” 

“The main challenge for employers, both local and international companies, is to hire good quality Saudi talent. To cater for this growing demand Robert Walters now has a dedicated recruitment team focused to support companies in Saudi Arabia to help them meet the Saudisation demands and achieve their business objectives.”

“There has also been an increase in demand for female Saudi nationals, especially in sales and finance roles. These disciplines were previously male dominated but with the 2030 vision ahead the demand for females is slowly growing.”

OUTLOOK FOR Q2 2018

“While Q2 does contain Ramadan and the Eid holiday, market sentiment is certainly up and positive job numbers from the index suggest a continued growth in the job market for Q2”

For further information, please contact Monique Miller on monique.miller@robertwalters.com or +27 11 881 2416

© Press Release 2018