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28 March 2024

UAE leads GCC in job-creation as hiring sentiment improves

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

Hiring sentiment improved this year in the GCC as many sectors and companies increased their headcount. However, some countries beat others in terms of job creation, making them more promising for jobseekers.

Toby Simpson, Managing Director at The Gulf Recruitment Group, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE have been in the limelight as these three economies led the region  in job creation in the first half of this year.

“We believe that Saudi has lead the GCC in the volume of job creation, but Oman has lead in percentage increase and the UAE has benefitted the most in terms of the economic value of job creation,” he told Emirates 24|7.

Hasnain Qazi, Middle East Business Manager at Huxley Associates lists Saudi, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the job creators.

“Saudi Arabia, followed by Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai [saw maximum number of] vacancies registered. Dubai is witnessing job growth, however, limited to certain sectors. It will still take some time for a full recovery across sectors such as banking. Slowly but surely, things are moving in the right direction,” he said.

Cliff Single, Commercial Manager at BAC Middle East puts the UAE on top of the list taking the size of the market into consideration.

“The UAE remains the most dynamic market relative to its size, although we have also seen a number of job roles in Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” Single told this website.

“There are no official statistics” believes Konstantina Sakellariou, Partner, Marketing & Operations Director at Stanton Chase “but in general, the UAE, KSA and Qatar are [seeing strongest growth levels] and respectively [registering  the maximum number of job openings]. Oman was also very active.”

According to experts in the industry, it is the government initiatives in Saudi and Oman that has provided a stimulus to the economy, thereby creating more jobs. In the UAE, the biggest growth is expected in the private sector.

“The massive public spending increases committed to by Saudi and Oman will have started to come to fruition, and the resulting infrastructure and services spending will not only develop construction and engineering industries, but also have a positive impact in the near term on financial services, healthcare, utilities and industrials. In the long term, we expect to see resulting benefits to trade, manufacturing and consumer products. The UAE, however, remains our highest priority market as it is likely to benefit from the biggest growth in private sector employment as it’s regional hub status for professional services, trade and logistics will deliver benefits in the country from any regional growth. The professional level of jobs created in the UAE is likely to be higher than elsewhere, and the country will continue to need to pay less to attract a higher level of professional,” explained The Gulf Recruitment Group expert.

Bahrain and Kuwait showed a lackluster performance in the first half of this year. “Sadly, one of the regions historically most advanced and liberal economies, Bahrain, has borne the brunt of political turbulence and it’s sphere of economic influence and jobs growth has declined. However, with it’s inherently strong business culture the fundamentals of a robust private sector remain strong. Though the Kuwaiti economy continues to post significant surpluses and the government does have an ambitious development plan in place, the cautionary pace of the realization of that plan and the slow pace of economic diversification mean that Kuwait has not delivered the jobs growth we may have hoped for,” said Simpson.

“Bahrain faces the slowest development due to the internal instability caused in the past months,” added Sakellariou.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)