Dubai: A number of employers in the UAE are still hiring rather than shedding workers, with recruitment activity rising by more than a third in August, according to the latest Monster Employment Index .
Culled from tens of thousands of online job listings by companies across the Middle East, the index showed that hiring activity in the UAE increased by 36 per cent in August from a year earlier.
The increase in hiring in the UAE is the highest in the region and indicates that the labour market is still relatively strong.
Sanjay Modi, Monster.com managing director for India, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, said the labour market in the UAE still looks good amid the oil price decline, thanks to the country's well-diversified economy.
"UAE's dependence on oil was not as much as other economies such as [Saudi Arabia]. They had diversified into other sectors much before, which is reaping the benefits now," Modi told Gulf News.
Hiring was also up in Kuwait (31 per cent), as well as in Egypt (25 per cent), Qatar (13 per cent), Oman (13 per cent), Saudi Arabia (10 per cent) and Bahrain (2 per cent).
UAE companies in the health care sector topped the chart in terms of the highest number of online vacancies, up 44 per cent. Businesses in the retail/trade and logistics sector came second at 24 per cent, followed by companies in the Information Technology and Telecom/Internet Service Provider (ISP) sector at 22 per cent.
Some industries, however, are seeing a slowdown in hiring activity and the hardest hit are organisations in the UAE’s oil and gas business, where recruitment has dropped by 29 per cent.
Those in the production, manufacturing, automotive and ancillary industry are also experiencing a decline, with job vacancies falling by 15 per cent.
Hospitality companies in the UAE have been affected as well, posting a 7 per cent decline in recruitment.
Professionals that are highly sought after these days are those with software, hardware and telecommunications background or qualifications, posting a year-on-year growth in demand of 38 per cent.
Sales and business development professionals are also attracting employers (36 per cent), as well as purchase, logistics and supply chain practitioners (22 per cent).
The “lowest growth occupations” in the UAE at the moment are hospitality and travel, up only 1 per cent; marketing and communications, arts, creative (up 1 per cent) and customer service (down 3 per cent).
Across the Middle East, the index registered a 37 per cent growth in recruitment. The steepest growth in hiring activity was recorded in the banking and finance, and IT and Telecom/ISP.
