Career opportunities in UAE: Retail jobs surge 45%

The UAE’s retail and trade & logistics sector recorded a huge spike in online job opportunities, surging by 45 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest iteration of the Monster Employment Index.

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle-East based on a real-time review of tens of thousands of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career websites and online job listings.

The Index shows that, even as the region suffered from total job losses of 6 per cent on an annual basis (thanks to a 26 per cent decline in online job opportunities in Saudi Arabia), the UAE recorded an 8 per cent increase in online opportunities over a 12-month period ended November 2012.

“Employers across Middle East continue to adopt a cautious approach owing to current global economic conditions. This cautious sentiment is reflected in the Monster Employment Index for November,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/ Middle- East/ South East Asia).

Not surprisingly, hospitality tops the charts among growth sectors regionally, with online job opportunities in the sector rising 38 per cent between November 2011 and November 2012. Retail and trade & logistics follow close behind, surging by 37 per cent across the seven countries that comprise the Monster Middle East Employment Index.

Among the slowest growing sectors (negative growth, actually) are the hydrocarbons-based industries, with chemicals/ plastic/ rubber, paints, fertilizer/ pesticides recording a 19 per cent decline in online job opportunities, followed by oil & gas, which saw a 9 per cent decline.

Among occupation groups, sales and business development exhibited the strongest growth (up 25 per cent) year-over-year; followed by healthcare occupations. The steepest decline, on the other hand, was witnessed in HR & administrative occupations, declining by 26 per cent, followed by legal positions, which saw a fall of 18 per cent year-on-year.

Among the seven countries surveyed for the Index, four recorded growth while three recorded a decline in job opportunities. Qatar (up 24 per cent) leads all countries in annual growth while Saudi Arabia (down 26 per cent) registered steepest annual decline.

The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.

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