Not-so-healthy prospects: Index reveals where your next job could be

Not-so-healthy prospects: Index reveals where your next job could be

As population in the GCC continues to expand, job prospects become tougher to find in UAE and Egypt. Better move to places like Saudi and Qatar, says index.

April 19, 2011 2:54 by kippreport

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman exhibit the most growth in employment opportunities over the past 6 months, while Bahrain, UAE and Egypt have recorded the lowest job growth opportunities, according to Monster’s Employment Index.

Kipp’s not so surprised. With several reports from end of last year and even more recently this month talking about unemployment issues in the GCC. First was Gulf News’s report on unemployment

It boldly points out (one of the few times it does) that the main reasons for the unemployment dilemma is that Ministers of Labour across the GCC are unable to come to terms with how to get more nationals injected into the private sector and at the same time enjoy “the high growth rates spurred by the availability of low-cost foreign workers.”

The other report highlights the UAE’s population spike to 8.3 million this year. That’s a 65 percent rise from figures in 2006, according to the National Statistics Bureau. The breakdown showed Emarati nationals account for only 11.5 percent of the population, as opposed to 15.4 percent five years ago—a blow to the government’s plans to raise the Emarati population to 40 percent of the whole country’s headcount.

Among many effects, this inevitably means an even tougher time looking for jobs and an uphill battle towards Emiratisation. In the article, Dr Abdul Rahim Al Shahin, a former representative from Ras Al Khaimah, suggested the encouragement of the natural increase in the Emirati population while discouraging the recruiting of expatriate workers. We suppose the same can be said across all the GCC countries with localisation plans in progress?
Easier said than done, says Kipp.
Going back to Monster’s Employment Index (a monthly gauge of online job demand in the Middle East), industry growth is seen among sectors like Healthcare; Engineering, Construction & Real Estate; IT & Telecom; as well as Production/Manufacturing & Automotive.

“Strong pockets of demand in production and engineering-related occupations have led to robust expansion in the number of online opportunities over the past six months, a trend likely to continue as business conditions improve globally,” said Sanjay Modi, MD (India/Middle East/ South East Asia), Monster.com.
And with growth comes increased job opportunities for skilled and experienced employees, which the local population does not have enough of (at least not yet, anyway).
So where are these job opportunities we speak of? Well topping the index’s list, Qatar has seen a 34 percent growth in the last six months, followed by Saudi Arabia and Oman, both with 31 percent growth in job opportunities

The countries with the lowest growth in job demand? Egypt understandably records a 7 percent drop in employment demand in the last six months. While the UAE follows far behind registering only a 2 percent growth while Bahrain is at 14 percent.

Jobs in advertising, market research, PR, media and entertainment remain in high demand in the UAE—a surprise to Kipp, as we would have thought there’s an overflow of us media types around these parts.

Overall however, Engineering and Production professionals continue to record the strongest demand across all the occupational groups in the past six months.