Jobs engine sputters on no growth

A monthly gauge of online jobs demand in the UAE remained flat in August, even as healthcare, education and retail emerged the fastest growing industries in the country, a private research group said this morning.

Monster Worldwide, an online careers and recruiting firm, said its Gulf Employment Index, which tracks online jobs demand in the six GCC countries and Egypt, remained flat at 109 points in August – the same level it was in July 2011.

“The August Monster Employment Index Middle East sustains the positive momentum of July. Hiring in sectors like Retail Trade/ Logistic Consumer Goods/ FMCG continues to underscore a relatively healthy consumer environment,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/Middle East/South East Asia).

However, the index, which rose from 96 points in June to 109 points in July, has witnessed a six-month decline from 114 points in March this year, suggesting an overall weakening of 4 percentage points in regional jobs demand in the past six months.

The employment index showed that Bahrain recorded the steepest six month growth (+29 per cent), followed by Egypt (+7 per cent) and UAE (zero growth), while the remaining Gulf nations saw a decline in the number of jobs advertised online, with Oman declining the most (-17 per cent) in six months.

Jobs in Saudi Arabia witnessed a six-month decline of 12 per cent, while Kuwait and Qatar witnessed a decline of 8 and 7 per cent, respectively.

Overall, retail/trade and logistics (up 17 per cent) lead all sectors in six-month growth while IT and Telecom/ISP (down 20 por cent) registered the steepest six-month decline.

On the other hand, money managers seemed high in demand in the past six months, with finance and accounts personnel topping the long-term growth chart with a 21 per cent growth in online ads seeking such professionals while those in marketing & communications/arts/creative; and sales and business development are the least in demand, witnessing the steepest 6-month decline of 11 per cent.

In the UAE, healthcare professionals were the most in demand, registering a staggering growth of 45 per cent on the past six months, followed by technology/telecom staff (up 42 per cent) and finance and accounts executives (up 40 per cent).

At the other end of the spectrum, hospitality and travel professionals were the least in favour, with demand for such individuals declining 11 per cent in the six-month period, followed by executives in purchase, logistics and supply chain (down 8 per cent), and professionals in marketing and communications, arts, and creative (down 4 per cent).

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