UAE job market bounced back with 30% more jobs in January-March period

The job market in the UAE has bounced back with 30 percent more jobs in January-March compared to the same period a year ago, reconfirming early indications that businesses are picking up growth momentum even faster than expected, according to sector experts and market research.

Companies across various sectors have focused so far on retaining their employees and reinstating full salaries on the heels of improving business sentiments in the Gulf country. But now the tide is turning.

“Business in the Arab world’s two largest economies – the UAE and Saudi Arabia – improved at the start of 2021, with the UAE seeing growth in its job market for the first time in over a year,” said Saikat Mukherjee, vice president, Seintiv Talent Solutions, a global consulting firm headquartered at Dubai.

“The early indicators are very positive and with businesses coming back, there is a spike in the talent market with new opportunities across sectors,” Mukherjee told Arabian Business.

Mukherjee said there is renewed hope in the job market, which is widely visible in open roles and job applications across LinkedIn, Bayt and other job portals.

The latest market study by Seintiv indicates that multiple sectors have started rehiring employees during the pandemic, specifically in the retail and tech side.

The study has also revealed that the demand for future ready leaders with a proven track record and strong commercial acumen is at a new high in the UAE.

“We at Seintiv have seen a sudden spurt in business requests to evaluate and search next-generation leaders for clients in retail, e-commerce, BFSI (banking, financial sector and insurance), technology and consulting space,” Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee said while there was reluctance from European talent, especially at a leadership level in the last 12 months, to consider opportunities based out of GCC, their study has seen the sentiment has improved significantly now.

“Our 60 percent of leadership positions have expat candidate requirements,” he said.

Mukherjee also said there has been a positive movement post-Covid-19 for talent from India and Southeast Asian countries to look at UAE as a place to be.

“India and Southeast Asian countries cover about 45 percent of mid-management talent for the GCC region now”, he said, adding that recent UAE government reforms like the golden visa, remote work visa and multiple entry visa are also attracting a lot of expats from India and Southeast Asia to work in Dubai.

Nick Johnston, a Dubai-based human resource expert, also confirmed the trend in large-scale re-entry of expats into the UAE job market.

“We are seeing an uptick in hiring and inward movement – particularly into the growth sectors and also into some of the areas hardest hit like aviation and hospitality – where the alumni are coming back – as confidence increases, activity returns, vaccination levels increase and travel and visa restrictions ease,” said Johnston, who has recruited for 15 years in the Middle East for technology, investment and aviation companies.

Johnston said to weather the Covid-19 storm, many companies had to reduce costs, which has led to people leaving the Gulf. Talent is typically the largest cost a company has and reducing the number of employees makes for a relatively quick impact on company books, which is why there was a high number of redundancies during the pandemic.

“In most cases, companies had to ask good people to leave – not just poor performers – and looked ahead and created lists of alumni – people they would ask to return when things got better,” he said.

Johnston said the biggest impact of employee retrenchment has been in hospitality, physical retail, travel, and construction sectors, which has affected blue collar and service workers from India and Southeast Asia in particular.

“We also saw a rise in remote working whilst travel and visa restrictions were in place – which meant new hires did not yet move to the Middle East,” Johnston said.

The Seintiv Talent Solutions study also revealed that with business sentiments improving, companies across sectors are now focusing on retaining their employees and reinstating their full salaries.

A large number of employees had seen a wide range of salary cuts last year, as companies struggled to sustain their businesses during the pandemic.

The pandemic has seen certain sectors, especially e-commerce and technology booming with high double digit growth figures, the study said.