UAE jobs growth up significantly: 5-year study
Despite low global oil prices, the jobs market in the UAE continues to do well thanks to a well-diversified economy and a strategy to minimise oil dependence.
According to the latest Monster Middle East Employment & Opportunities report, the country is rising to the challenge of oil price fluctuations, as the efforts to diversify its economy have secured robust hiring activity in non-oil sectors.
In the UAE, the report reveals the jobs market was very optimistic in 2015, even if the online hiring rate is still much below that of 2012.
Within the jobs market, the strongest sectors that are creating opportunities are largely led by a customer and service-oriented industry. Demand has also been registered for professionals in software, hardware and telecom, finance and accounts, as well as sales and business development.
Dial IT for jobs: The steepest growth in online opportunities was registered in the IT and Telecom/ISP in 2015 with online recruitment in the sector moving at a pace of 23 per cent year-on-year.
In the pink of financial health: Healthcare is one bright sector to look at for jobs. Online hiring has increased at the rate of 21 per cent year-on-year in 2015. For many GCC citizens, Dubai is a preferred choice for cosmetic dentistry and cosmetic surgery in general. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) plans to increase the proportion of foreign visitors into the emirate by almost 12 per cent, with a target of 500,000 medical tourists by 2020 compared to approximately 107,000 in 2012.
“Looking at the past five years, we have seen a lot of fluctuations in the job market in the UAE, with the global financial crisis shaking up the economy,” says Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).
“Employer hiring activity grew at an average rate of 16 per cent in 2015. This is significant when viewed against a backdrop of prolonged economic turbulences, and shows how successful the Emirates has been in diversifying the economy when expanding the non-oil sector over the past couple of years.”
The report focuses on areas that the country is looking at to raise its non-oil national income. Areas the country is looking at includes renewable and sustainable energy. Authorities have pledged that by 2020 clean energy will generate 24 per cent of the country’s electricity, with the Dubai Solar Park being capable of producing 5,000 megawatts of electricity by 2030, having a direct effect in the number of jobs created.
The SME sector is another area that will play an important role. It accounted for 60 per cent of the non-oil GDP in 2014 and the UAE government seeks to raise the figure to 70 per cent by 2021. The UAE also aims to see a five per cent contribution by 2021 from the innovation sector, making the UAE perfect for technology start-ups.
“To stay ahead of competition, education is a top priority as well. Plans to further enhance training programmes for public schools are currently under discussion, with a view to produce an educational environment where Emiratis and residents can develop specific skills which meet today’s market demands,” the report added.
“To stay ahead of competition, education is a top priority as well. Plans to further enhance training programmes for public schools are currently under discussion, with a view to produce an educational environment where Emiratis and residents can develop specific skills which meet today’s market demands,” the report added.
The Monster index monitored eleven occupational categories across twelve broad industry sectors and tracked online job postings in the six GCC economies as well as Egypt since 2011.
Source: http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates
Courtesy: Gulf Jobs