Jobs are certainly there for the taking in PR

The public relations, communications and marketing and advertising sectors in the region’s two biggest markets of the UAE and Saudi Arabia recorded significant year on year growth in the 12 months ending March 2016, according to LinkedIn’s latest Industry Talent Report. (It is an annual benchmark using anonymous member and survey data from the world’s largest professional online networking platform to gauge employment prospects and shaping trends.)

According to the findings, employment for PR and communications industry professionals in the UAE grew by 8.7 per cent over the past year with the equivalent figure from the marketing and advertising standing at 8 per cent. The report shows a similar trend in Saudi Arabia where PR & communications grew by 2.7 per cent, whereas marketing and advertising showed an almost similar growth of 2.4 per cent.

In general, across the region’s 10 markets comprising LinkedIn’s Industry Talent Report index, the marketing and advertising industry grew by an average of 2.8 per cent, with Lebanon, a non-oil producing economy, being the only market showing negative growth of 1.25 per cent.

The findings are of significant importance demonstrating the sector’s relative resilience at a time when protracted low oil prices have put pressure on companies to cut down marketing budgets and manpower costs.

That could be an indication that even under austere times, the boardroom no longer views PR and marketing as nice-to-have luxuries that support the organisation’s sales and operational functions when times are good. The view instead seems to be that both disciplines gradually but steadily are finding solid and fertile grounds to set roots. And grow from within into indispensable communications tools that can jointly help protect and improve reputations, diversify revenue streams and boost margins.

In a further signal of healthy demand for PR talent, during the same period, 5 per cent of PR and communications professionals in the UAE changed roles within the same company while a further 10 per cent changed companies. In Saudi Arabia the respective figure in both role changers and job switchers was 3 per cent.

The most sought after skills by companies hiring professionals from the sector over the last year were PR, marketing communications, social media, media relations, event management and corporate communications.

Most PR and communications professionals in both GCC markets were recruited in marketing and advertising (consultancies), information technology and services, construction, retail and telecommunications.

In the UAE, nearly 530 recent graduates — defined as those who’ve graduated in the last three years — started new jobs in the PR and communications marketplace, with 9 per cent of them holding a postgraduate degree. The equivalent Saudi Arabia numbers were less than half those of the UAE.

The rapid rise in the number of graduates entering the sector gives credence to a report unveiled by the recently launched PR Consultants Association (PRCA) Middle East chapter, according to which the influence and size of the industry is only set to grow in the region as budgets are increasing and agencies are noting an expected growth of 28 per cent for this year.

Perhaps that also explains the nearly double-digit growth in the sector’s employment market during a time when corporates are dropping expensive advertising solutions in favour for more cost-efficient and effective public relations strategies.

The PR industry in the Middle East has indeed made massive strides forward since its humble beginnings in the 70s when, according to Badran Badran, a long standing member of Zayed University’s Department of Communications and Media Sciences, “it was gravely misunderstood to mean no more than protocol and hospitality with assorted other services as add-ons”.

According to an April 2015 LinkedIn insights report, the online professional network has 21,200 members specialising in PR and communications across the GCC, Levant, Iran and Pakistan. The bulk of the region’s PR professionals is based in the UAE, where 6,800 specialists ply their trade at agencies or through in-house roles.

The second biggest employer of PR professionals — albeit a distant one with just 2,900 current positions — is Pakistan, closely followed by Saudi Arabia in third with 2,600. Iran, Qatar and Lebanon have a combined total of 4,300 PR pros, almost evenly spread across the three markets.

The writer is Head of PR and Social Media at Al-Futtaim and author of “Back to the Future of Marketing — PRovolve or Perish”. Follow him on Twitter @georgekotsolios