While online recruitment activity in the UAE rose by 24 per cent on the year during March, the annual growth momentum eased 21 percentage points month-on-month, the country remains one of the best performing markets in the region.

While online recruitment activity in the UAE rose by 24 per cent on the year during March, the annual growth momentum eased 21 percentage points month-on-month, the country remains one of the best performing markets in the region, a report said.

Job demand for the GCC region exceeded the year-ago level by eight per cent in March 2016 and exhibited the first positive monthly growth since November 2015, up seven per cent, according to the Monster Employment Index (MEI).

“Despite negative economic projections, growth momentum in the GCC region is still positive,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong). “There is no doubt that falling oil prices have hit the economy hard; on the back of banks’ tightening liquidity and governments’ austerity measures to curb budget deficits, employers clearly are much more cautious in hiring this year.”

According to the International Monetary Fund, the reason why the UAE continues to achieve new levels of economic growth despite a strong US dollar and low oil prices is due to its ‘prudent financial policies and sound economic methodology’.

Early market liberalisation and deregulation has successfully led the country to open up its banking sector to domestic and foreign financial institutions, while also attracting major non-oil foreign trading partners and suppliers. As one of the most diversified economies among the GCC countries, the IMF predicts a 2.5 per cent growth for the UAE this year – a figure which is to improve even further, should oil prices recover next year as foreseen.

Healthcare is leading the industry growth charts in the UAE for the second month in a row with a 38 per cent growth in online job posts year on year. The job demand in the industry is not surprising, given the development of the Dubai 2021 Health Strategy to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of health services in the emirate, and strengthen the collaboration between the public and private sectors.

The second best performing industry is Retail/Trade and Logistics, with 36 per cent growth in online job posts. Followed by Consumer Goods/FMCG, Food & Packaged Food, Home Appliance, Garments/Textiles/Leather, Gems & Jewellery, with a growth of 32 per cent in job opportunities posted online year on year to March 2016.

The outlook is gloomier for job seekers in Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment; Hospitality; and Oil and Gas sectors, which exhibited a negative drop of 13 per cent, 17 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. – TradeArabia News Service