Saudi Arabia registered the highest long term growth in employment among all other GCC countries, with the creative and media industry maintaining its top position with a 55 per cent growth in job listings year on year, a report said.

Meanwhile, the oil sector registered a negative growth, noted the Monster Employment Index, a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle-East based on a real-time review of employer job opportunities.

“Monster Employment Index Saudi Arabia continues to highlight a positive trend in employment growth, which indicates a healthy and strong economy,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).

“As compared to last year, overall online job listings in the Kingdom have increase by 30 per cent, led by a 55 per cent increase in the advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment industry.

“As the country is preparing to open up to foreign investment, local and international firms operating in Saudi Arabia are excited at the prospect of promoting their products and services, which has led to a significant increase in demand for creative talent,” he added.

“Impacted by the drop in oil prices, the Saudi oil sector has been the worst performer last month and the only one registering a negative growth of 3 per cent year on year. Companies operating in the oil sectors are keeping a tight grip on their budgets and our data suggests hiring in this sector has slowed down considerably,” Modi concluded.

Six out of seven countries in the Mena region monitored by the Index indicated increase in availability of online jobs year-on-year:

•    Saudi Arabia (up 30 percent) supplanted Egypt (up 28 percent) to lead all monitored countries by the way of long-term growth.

•    UAE (up 17 percent) registered a positive annual growth this month. Year-on-year, recruitment activity eased 10 per cent in January 2015 and matched that of February 2014 the following month before picking up again this month

•    Kuwait (down seven percent) is the only country to exhibit negative annual growth rate even this month. The rate of growth has however improved slightly.  

Oman (19 per cent), Bahrain (16 per cent) and Qatar (13 per cent) also registered positive growths. – TradeArabia News Service