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Good news for job seekers: UAE firms start hiring again

Dubai - Study says job market is gradually reviving with the help of recent medical developments and constant safety measures

Job seekers in the UAE will soon have an easier time, as organisations across the country look to once again fill various positions that were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, new research has shown.

According to the latest employment and hiring insights, organisations are taking a future-ready approach and increasingly recruiting talent that is specialising in digitalisation, risk management, and finance consulting. The healthcare sector is still logging in strong demand for new talent, while sectors that were impacted by the global pandemic, such as hospitality, aviation, and leisure, are slowly recovering.

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Speaking to Khaleej Times, Ola Haddad, director of Human Resources at Bayt.com, said that the Covid-19 pandemic had undoubtedly hit several industries hard last year, but the job market is gradually reviving with the help of recent medical developments and constant safety measures. “While 2020 was a challenging year for professionals worldwide, 2021 is looking bright,” she said. “The outlook looks promising for job seekers in the UAE in particular. According to the Job Index survey conducted recently by Bayt.com, 74 per cent of UAE employers intend to hire new people in the next year.”

The results of the survey showed that the majority of UAE companies will be hiring entry level staff especially junior executives. In addition, sales executives, receptionists, and sales managers are the top roles employers in the UAE are looking for. On the other hand, Oil/Gas/Petrochemicals, Advertising/Marketing/Public Relations, and Engineering/Design sectors demonstrated the highest intention of hiring in the next one year across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Similarly, Jon Ede, regional director for the Middle East at Michael Page, said that it is difficult to say with any certainty what 2021 holds for the UAE’s job market. “But, what I can say, with confidence, is that the recruitment landscape feels completely different to eight months ago with measurable improvement in the last two quarters.”

“The recruitment sector is largely optimistic, albeit cautiously so,” he said. “While we’re yet to see a full return to pre-pandemic job flow, we are already on the route to recovery. The number of jobs we are acquiring and turning over on a weekly or monthly basis recovered considerably in both Q4 2020 & Q1 2021 and the signs for Q2 remain positive.”

Traditional sectors such as retail, aviation, and tourism faced the biggest challenges in 2020 and they continue to innovate to navigate their way out of the crisis. Even before the pandemic, many retail brands were undergoing a period of disruption as they were forced to introduce online sales channels to keep up with competition and changing consumer habits. While the sectors hardest hit have a long road ahead, Ede said, already they are showing signs of recovery, as the roll-out of vaccines continues not only in the UAE but globally as well, supporting a more sustainable revival.

“On the flip side, some sectors benefited from the pandemic, such as digital, technology, life sciences, strategy consulting and telecoms,” he added.

rohma@khaleejtimes.com