If you are on the lookout for a job in the UAE, healthcare is the brightest spot right now.
According to the latest Monster Employment Index, this particular industry offers the most jobs right now after registering a remarkable 60 per cent increase in October over the same period the year before.
The demand for medical professionals has been consistently going up over the past years in the country and authorities are developing strategies to generate manpower to keep with the growing needs of this sector.
According to a Dubai Health Authority official, Dubai anticipates to welcome more than 500,000 medical tourists by 2020 and generate Dh2.6 billion in revenue, marking a 20 per cent growth over 2015.
In addition, Dubai Health Care City (DHCC), the world’s largest healthcare free zone, is expanding to include the Nashami project, which will feature 3.3 million square feet of rehabilitation facilities, retail stores, as well as hospitality and leisure facilities. It is expected to receive 20,000 people.
Demand coming from existing hospitals and with the opening of new ones, more jobs are expected to be added to the market.
And it isn’t just in the UAE that medical professionals are needed. The Monster Index shows that despite a general slowdown in the jobs market, the Middle East is witnessing a rising need in serving the GCC healthcare sector.
Looking at the November 2015 data for professionals working in this field, job opportunities continue to soar, reaching 36 per cent year-on-year growth, in addition to the industry itself recording a 20 per cent year-on-year growth in terms of job posting.
On the other hand, finance and accounting professionals fared the worst in the country.
The UAE data for November 2015, shows that online job demand looks bleak for those in this industry after registering a negative year-on-year growth of -2 per cent.
“Being the first negative growth recorded since January 2015, these findings indicate the UAE economy faces an additional liquidity crunch amid growing financial turmoil. Given this climate, we are not surprised to see a decline in job demand for finance and accounting professionals; both global and local lenders such as Standard Chartered, HSBC Middle East and First Gulf Bank have announced job cuts for the region,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).
“Risk appetite is as low as market liquidity and financial institutions are adopting cost cutting policies, while reducing exposure to riskier assets and avoiding bad debts,” he noted.