Things Are Looking Up For Jobs

The online careers and recruiting firm said earlier last week that Qatar, followed by Saudi Arabia registered the largest growth, with the UAE following.

Compared to February, the regional jobs gauge was up 4 per cent in March.

The index, published for the first time in the region, is a monthly gauge of jobs advertised on various employment sites, including MonsterGulf.com. From now on, it will be brought out every month.

“The underlying data trend shows an increase in online job demand over a six-month time period. [This leads] us to believe that there has been improvement in the business conditions in Middle East region that should further lead to improvement in the labor market activity,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, India, Middle East and South-East Asia of Monster.com.

“We are seeing strong improvements in labour intensive industry sectors like construction, oil and gas, production and manufacturing, information technology and its enabled services and also across various functions in an organisation unit.”

Qatar rose from 81 to 109, Saudi Arabia from 88 to 116 and Egypt, unsurprisingly fell from 94 to 88. The UAE rose from 106 to 107.

Business sentiment

“Although only modest, it’s important to acknowledge that there has been growth in the UAE index which is a positive indicator of the business sentiment,” Modi said.
The Monster index registered positive monthly growth in 11 of 12 industries and seven of 11 occupational groups monitored by the Index.

Demand for workers in engineering, construction and real estate was the highest, posting an increase of 34.15 per cent, with oil and gas posting the next greatest increase in the six month period. Education ranked fourth jumping 27.06 per cent. Modi is not surprised by the growth in education sector. He told Gulf News that this growth is a reflection of the commitment and tangible steps taken by local governments in order to improve employability levels and bridge the skill-gap situation.