Online job opportunities in Bahrain grew 32 per cent in the first half of 2011 over the same period last year, marking the highest growth in seven Middle East countries, according to a report.

Opportunities in Kuwait grew by 23 per cent in the first half of the year, followed by Saudi Arabia at 15 per cent, according to the Monster Employment Index (MEI) of Monster.com.

MEI is a monthly gauge of online job demand 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 Web sites and online job listings.

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.

“The latest increase in the Monster Employment Index Gulf was driven by rising demand for professionals in a variety of categories such as legal, customer service and banking/ finance,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director India/Middle East/South East Asia, Monster.com.

“Counterbalancing the rise in these sectors is the notable drop in tourism and hospitality, possibly caused by reduced tourism during the summer months.”

Egypt (down -13 per cent) and Oman (down -17 per cent) saw the largest six-month drops in job demand, according to the report.

Seven of the 12 industry sectors monitored by MEI registered positive six-month growth trend in June.

BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), up 44 per cent, recorded the strongest growth in June, expanding a notable 33 per cent from May 2011, while advertising, market research, PR (up 17 per cent) and retail (up 9 percent) were amidst the fastest growth sectors over six months.

Engineering, construction and real estate (up 5 per cent) saw the first positive monthly growth in recruitment activity since March.

Production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary (down 23 per cent) tempered for the fourth consecutive month to reach the lowest point in the series and hospitality (down 46 per cent) sector displayed further contraction in June.

Customer service (up 63 percent) continued to be the leading occupation fuelled by an additional 8 percent month-over-month growth in online demand, while health care (up 9 per cent) recorded improved six-month growth momentum rising from -3 per cent in May to 9 per cent in June.

Sales and business development (down 10 per cent) displayed a much milder pace of six-month decline in June compared to May, the report said. – TradeArabia News Service