UAE and Bahrain registered the steepest rise at 9 per cent in employment opportunities in the GCC during May as compared to the corresponding period a year ago, according to the latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), a monthly analysis of online job posting activity.

“Slow global economic recovery, cheap oil and regional instability have adversely hit the GCC economic and business confidence; while Bahrain and UAE continue to exhibit growth in hiring at a moderate pace, e-recruitment activity in the region slipped 17 per cent below the corresponding period a year-ago,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director – APAC and Middle East, Monster.com.

The MEI is 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.

“With the domestic news agenda being dominated by austerity measures and the introduction of VAT, we expect 2016 to be a challenging year for the UAE as well. Under the current scenario, companies across the country including government agencies will have to establish a new order for promoting growth in the UAE and change their spending habits, while shifting energy production towards solar power and other alternative resources,” Modi added.
 
According to a recent report by the professional services firm, Ernst & Young (EY), greater union between the six GCC member states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE could, potentially, maximize growth opportunities in the region, with trigger effect on the UAE.

While the report does not suggest a monetary or fiscal union, it does see great potential in removing the remaining barriers to intra-regional trade, doing away with ‘lengthy border checks and a lack of regulatory alignment’. Harmonizing regulations while creating a single market through more economic integration could indeed increase foreign investment flows to the GCC as a whole and consequently boost efficiency and promote growth and current diversification efforts in the long-term.

In the UAE this month, healthcare is leading the industry growth charts, with a 34 per cent growth in online job posts year-on-year. At the same time, Health care is also the most in-demand job role, growing at 35 per cent.

The second best performing industry in the UAE is consumer goods/FMCG, food & packaged food, home appliance, garments/textiles/leather, gems & jewellery, with 29 per cent growth in online job posts. Although registering one of the steepest declines among the industry sectors monitored by the Index, retail/trade and logistics follows with a growth of 28 per cent in job opportunities posted online year on year to May 2016.

The outlook is the gloomy for BFSI, with the industry exhibiting a negative drop of 12 per cent; while hospitality sector plunges the most, with online recruitment activity registering a negative 32 per cent growth in May 2016 as compared to the previous year. – TradeArabia News Service