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29 March 2024

This UAE industry created 100,000+ jobs – with good pay

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

It may not be as glamorous as investment banking or real estate (at least in Dubai), but this core UAE industry created more than 100,000+ jobs in 2013.

According to industry sources, the UAE’s chemicals sector, includes petrochemical firms and associated sectors, generated a host of well-paying jobs last year.

The Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) maintains that petrochemical companies in the country employed 38,100 people in 2013, and the sector has a “multiplier effect” on the chemicals industry, leading to more jobs opening up.

It currently sits at 1:3, meaning that every 10 jobs created in the sector eventually lead to an additional 30 indirect employment opportunities in the petrochemicals supply chain.

For the UAE, direct employment, along with services that support the petrochemicals industry, led to the creation of an estimated 114,300 indirect jobs in 2013, as per the GPCA.

And, the good news isn’t just limited to the number of job openings. The salaries are considered good in this sector, which is perhaps the icing on the cake.

Rigzone, an online resource for oil and gas information, data and talent recruitment, put Dubai on top of the list when it comes to salary levels in the industry.

The survey released in 2013 by Rigzone put Dubai as the most desired location to work in for oil & gas professionals in the world. However, this is only limited to those in oil & gas and not associated sectors.

According to PayScale.com, an online salary, benefits and compensation information company, a project engineer in petrochemical sector can get a salary of Dh202,492 per annum, an electrical engineer can get Dh197,468, a fire fighter Dh201,890, a senior mechanical engineer Dh220,669, an area sales manager Dh308,395, a reliability engineer Dh259,032 and a field engineer Dh180,000.

These are salaries that have been posted on the website and were last updated this month.     

Popular employers in the industry, as per PayScale, offer varying salaries. For example, salaries of Baker Hughes Inc. is between Dh70,986 and Dh324,000; McDermott International Inc. offers between Dh165,083 and Dh441,339; Gasco pays between Dh120,000 and Dh240,000; Shell Oil Company’s packages range between Dh106,800 and Dh 540,000; and Weatherford International Inc. doles out between Dh121,452 and Dh295,223. These figures are based on the findings of PayScale in 2013.

On the jobs front regionally, the chemicals industry as a whole, meanwhile, was responsible for the direct employment of 148,900 people and indirectly created an estimated 446,800 additional jobs. Petrochemicals output from the Gulf produced up to $102 billion (Dh375bn) worth of products, as per GPCA estimates.

The UAE manufactures an estimated $11bn (Dh40.4bn) worth of chemical products, including plastic and fertilizers.

“The UAE’s petrochemical industry has steadily built a solid base of highly skilled human capital over the last few years,” says Dr. Abdulwahab Al- Sadoun, Secretary General, GPCA.

“Petrochemical is evolving into an industry that touches nearly every sector of the GCC economy, from technology, equipment manufacturing, construction and agriculture to retail and trade. On a global level, the GCC can help meet rising chemical demand, and, in the process, create new, medium- and high-skilled employment for talented GCC nationals,” he added.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)