The Monster Employment Index for the UAE showed online hiring fell by 39% in January 2018 when compared to the previous year.

The index is a monthly gauge of online job hiring activity by Monster.com, which records the industries and occupations that show the highest and lowest growth.

Contributing to this decline, the IT sector (including Telecom and Internet Service Provider) recorded the lowest growth, at -15% on the year. This was closely followed by Production and Engineering, at -13% and -9% respectively.

Meanwhile, Consumer Goods saw a 24% growth in online hiring in January when compared to the same period last year.

For occupations, Software (including hardware and telecom) was the only sector to see growth, registering a 14% increase from January 2017.

In the wider Gulf Cooperation Council region, Kuwait saw growth in online hiring activity of 12%, year-on-year. Saudi Arabia registered a 5% increase from the same time last year.