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28 March 2024

'UAE offers most jobs in the GCC'

Increased hiring reported by Gulf companies (AFP)

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

As the economy turns a corner and news about increased hiring activity across the region flows in, there's more good news for those living in the UAE.

The most popular recruitment websites in the region show that the UAE is the largest job generator in the region, offering far more opportunities than other GCC members.

Emirates 24|7 scanned more than 60,000 recent job openings as of November 2, posted on five leading recruitment and jobs sites - bayt.com, monstergulf.com, gulftalent.com, nakurigulf.com  and aljazeerajobs.com.

Out of the 60,732 positions surveyed, 27,311 jobs - or approximately 45 per cent (44.9 per cent) - were listed for the UAE, making it the most lucrative market for jobseekers within the GCC.

Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab market, came in second with 14,192 job openings, or about 23.36 per cent.

Qatar came third with 10,248 listed offerings (about 16.87 per cent), followed by Kuwait at 4,022 positions (6.62 per cent) and there were 2,553 positions (4.2 per cent) for Oman. Bahrain is the weakest GCC market in terms of online jobs on offer, with just 2,406 positions, contributing 3.96 per cent of the jobs offered in the market.

A quarterly survey of hiring and firing trends around the world has found that hiring levels in the professional and managerial sector in the Gulf are seeing a strong resurgence.

The 'Global Snapshot' from the international recruitment firm Antal surveyed more than 9,100 organisations in 52 countries on whether they were hiring and firing at professional and managerial level. It then asked whether they planned to do so in the coming quarter. More than half (56 per cent) of companies in the Gulf surveyed said that they were currently hiring, up from 48 per cent in the last poll in June. The nations in the region surveyed were; the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Yemen.

The survey also showed that only 20 per cent of Gulf organisations are currently letting managerial staff go, down from 21 per cent in June.

Confidence is particularly high in Qatar where 80 per cent of companies are currently hiring and this is expected to rise to 89 per cent over the coming quarter. Current hiring figures for the UAE and Saudi Arabia are 53 and 49 per cent, respectively.

"No-one is likely to be brave, or foolish, enough to say that our economic troubles are over, particularly if they are based in any of the nations bearing the brunt of painful budgetary cuts at the moment," says Antal's CEO Tony Goodwin. "But it does seem as if we have avoided the financial Armageddon that seemed all too real a prospect from late 2008 to the early months of 2009," he adds.

"For chief executives and HR directors around the globe, the key business challenge is already shifting away from headcount reduction or containment to how to source the talent they will need in improving markets. The war for talent, which had dwindled to little more than an insignificant skirmish, has already broken out once again," he added.

And numbers prove that. Gulftalent.com has the maximum number of jobs listed for the UAE on its website. The figures on the site show that 1,826 jobs are listed of the UAE. In comparison, there are 717 jobs for Saudi Arabia; 477 for Qatar; 128 for Kuwait, 118 for Bahrain and 100 for Oman.

MonsterGulf.com shows that maximum jobs are listed for the UAE. Recent job listings until November 2, show the UAE has 1,107 jobs listed. Saudi Arabia has 328 jobs; Qatar 212; Kuwait 212; Oman has 43 and Bahrain has just 1 listed job.

Going by the job posting on bayt.com, the UAE beats other countries in job listings. UAE has 3,085 jobs listed. Saudi Arabia has 2,042 jobs; Qatar 674; Kuwait 616; Bahrain 157 and Oman has 63 listed jobs.

Other popular website like www.naukurigulf.com and www.aljazeerajobs.com also show the UAE on top. The UAE has 5,133 jobs; Saudi Arabia 2,105; Qatar 1,800; Oman 432; Kuwait 326 and Bahrain has 255 listed openings on naukrigulf.com, while aljazeerajobs.com shows that the UAE has 16,160 listings; 9,000 for Saudi Arabia; 7,085 for Qatar; 2,740 in Kuwait; 1,915 in Oman and 1,875 jobs in Bahrain.