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Middle East – Online job market grows +14%

22 April 2014

The Middle East’s online job market grew by +14% in the past year, on the back of buoyant activity in the retail, logistics, and banking & finance services sectors, according to the Monster Employment Index, reports arabianbusiness.com.

The Index, which charts online job posting activity, found that between March 2013 and March 2014 Egypt recorded the most notable growth in online job activity with +28%, followed by Kuwait with +21%. Bahrain and Qatar also reported positive growth in recruitment activity, both rising by +2%, year-on-year.

However, significant downturns were recorded in the UAE, where job postings were down by -16%, as well as in Saudi Arabia (-14%) and in Oman (-5%).

The index showed that retail-trade and logistics recorded the strongest growth for the year at +28%, while the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors were up by +21%, including a +17 percentage point improvement between February and March 2014.

Other sectors to record strong growth were hospitality (+11%), while the biggest drop was in the oil and gas sector (down -13%) and production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary sectors (down -6%).

By individual occupations, the biggest growth was in marketing and communications/arts/creative (up +52%), while the biggest declines were in customer service and healthcare which reported a fall of -13% and -7%, respectively.

Sanjay Modi, Managing Director of Monster.com for India, the Middle East, and South East Asia, commented: “Retail/trade and logistics; and BFSI have been some of the most steadily growing sectors. This month we observe significant growth in the hospitality sector as well, while the oil and gas sector has been the most restrained as far as growth in online hiring is concerned. Meanwhile strong growth is predicted in hospitality and retail sectors.”