Dubai: The overall job market is still facing some headwinds, but recruitment activity in certain industries is now picking up, a new research showed.
The Monster Employment Index, a monthly gauge of the labour market in the Middle East based on tens of thousands of job listings online, indicated that hiring in certain sectors like advertising, public relations, media and entertainment; hospitality; and oil and gas in the UAE declined by 13 per cent, 17 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively in March compared to a year earlier.
“There is no doubt that falling oil prices have hit the economy hard. On the back of banks’ tightening liquidity and governments’ austerity measures to curb budget deficits, employers clearly are much more cautious in hiring this year,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com for India, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.
However, job demand is still high in other businesses that remain immune to the impact of lower oil prices and stronger US dollar. The positive growth in these industries is pushing the UAE’s overall online recruitment activity higher, with job demand rising by about a quarter (24 per cent) in March.
Across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, hiring activity exceeded the year-ago level by 8 per cent in March and exhibited the first positive monthly growth since November 2015, up 7 per cent.
