According to the new Jobs Index study conducted by MENA number one job site Bayt.com, in conjunction with research specialists YouGov Siraj, respondents in Tunisia are highly confident that their organisations will be hiring in the future: 33% said they will definitely be hiring after a year; while 32% each in Kuwait, Morocco and Lebanon said they will definitely be hiring in a year’s time. . The solid number of employers planning to recruit shows an improvement on the last wave, when 52% said they planned to hire during the quarter.
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the countries recorded varying propensity to hire as part of the Jobs Index. Respondents in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman had the highest propensity to hire: 33% in Saudi Arabia and 29% each in Kuwait and Oman said that their organisations will definitely be recruiting new staff in the coming months. The study also found that 26% of respondents in Qatar and 24% in the UAE will definitely hire in the next three months.
The Jobs Index (JI) is conducted to gauge perceptions of job availability and hiring, to identify job trends and to provide an understanding of the key skill sets and qualifications required in the Middle East job market.
The survey asked the respondents how many positions their organisations would be aiming to fill in the next three months. For the most part, organisations are looking to recruit staff for less than ten positions: 44% said that less than five jobs will be available, and 22% said that between six and 10 jobs will be available. Interestingly, 3% of respondents said that they will be looking to fill more than one hundred vacancies in the coming quarter.
“During the recession, a number of the region’s professionals lost their jobs as organisations cut their human resources budgets in a bid to save money and ride out the recession,” noted Rabea Ataya, chief executive officer, Bayt.com. “Now, as the region recovers from the recession, one of the first things that companies look at sourcing is the right talent to fit their new business needs.”
Asked at what level they are looking to recruit in the coming three months, the survey found that junior executives are the most likely to find themselves with a job offer: 30% of organisations said that they would be looking to employ junior executives, followed by 26% that said they would be looking to hire on an executive level. As in the previous wave, and unsurprisingly given the level of experience and knowledge required, limited C-suite jobs are going to be on offer: 4% of the respondents said they would be seeking to appoint a new president, 6% said they plan to appoint a CEO, and another 6% said they would advertise vacancies for a COO, CFO or CMO.
Of those that are likely to be employed, graduates or postgraduates in business management stand the best chance. According to the study, 24% of organisations around the Middle East favour employing staff that are qualified in this field. Furthermore, graduates or postgraduates in commerce, engineering and administration are equally sought after by the region’s organisations, with 22% of respondents citing personnel in these fields as highly desirable. Less attractive to organisations in the region were those with qualifications in interior or fashion design, and in flight training: just 3% and 2% of organisations, respectively, agreed that these are important qualifications that new staff should possess.
The respondents were also asked to name which industries they feel are attracting or retaining top talent in their country of residence today. As in the previous wave, the banking and finance (37%) and telecommunications (37%) sectors took the top spots in terms of those that attract the region’s top employees.
Data for the January 2010 Jobs Index was collected online between 4 and 30 January 2010, with 3,942 respondents from the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Pakistan. Males and females aged over 18 years old, of all nationalities, were included in the survey.
