The demand for software, hardware, and telecom professionals topped the charts for recruitment in the Middle East with a 28 per cent increase year-on-year during September, a report said.

Oil and gas (down 19 percent) recorded the steepest decline among all monitored industry sectors even this month, added the Monster Employment Index, a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle-East.

Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) registered the second highest growth with 23 per cent increase in opportunities among industry sector year-on-year but here again at a much slower pace than the previous months.

At the same time available online opportunities is lower than the three-month ago level; down by 14 percent. This is third negative three-month growth in the series while the Index reading has drawn closer to February.

Production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary (down two percent) charted fewer opportunities than the year-ago level even this month. Nevertheless, the year-on-year growth rate has improved significantly from a negative 17 percent in August.

Online recruitment in chemicals/ plastic/ rubber, paints, fertilizer/ pesticides sector slipped 13 percent below the year-ago level this month while consumer goods/ FMCG, food & packaged food , home appliance, garments/ textiles/ leather, gems & jewellery matched the year-ago level in terms hiring activity.





“The year-on-year growth momentum has slowed down for the first time in the past five months. Online recruitment activity in the region has slugged below that in the previous months as is reflected by the second successive negative three-month growth rate. Even so, the region is charting a robust growth of 24 percent as compared to the same period in 2014. With the exception of Bahrain, the pace of year-on-year growth has eased in all countries monitored by the Index,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).

“As per reports and market analysis, the long-term outlook for GCC is positive despite falling oil revenues and regional tensions. The GCC economies are projected to grow by 3.4 per cent in 2015 and 3.7 per cent in 2016, reported a global leader in credit insurance, the Coface Group. GCC economies are benefiting from years of robust hydrocarbon dynamics and the increasing focus by the region on achieving long-term growth through diversification of the economy,” continued Modi.

“Similarly, in the UAE, IT and Telecom/ISP lead all industry sectors by the way of long-term growth, with a 25 percent year-on-year increase. This comes as no surprise as the county is known for the convenience it provides with technology and online services, where almost all brands have a web team to accommodate customers’ requests. A senior partner and practice director at Frost & Sullivan said at a conference recently in Dubai that the GCC e-commerce market — half of which will be the UAE — is expected to grow by 40 percent by 2020.

It is also worth noting that the Banking and Financial Services industry’s online hiring activity continues to decrease for the second month, registering a negative growth of -8 percent in September 2015 as compared to the same month in the previous year. Occupation wise, Sales and Business Development industry’s online activity registered an impressive increase, leading the year-on-year growth charts in the UAE with a 45 percent increase,” added Modi.

UAE (up 33 percent) leads all monitored countries year-on-year yet again but at a slightly eased-up pace. There has been an eight percent increase in opportunities, month-on-month; also the highest among all countries.

Online hiring is Saudi Arabia (up six percent) continues to trend upward in the long-term but at a moderating pace. There are fewer jobs that are being added in the short-term. Both three-month and six-month growth rate continue to be negative.   

Bahrain (up four percent) saw slightly improved year-on-year growth trend. In all other countries the growth momentum has eased between August and September 2015. Qatar (up two percent) and Oman (up one percent) has seen the least growth with a 12 percentage point drop in the year-on-year growth rate. – TradeArabia News Service