Only 24% of Tunisian employers plan to recruit over the next few months, according to the new Bayt.com Jobs Index study conducted by Middle East recruitment site Bayt.com, in conjunction with research specialists YouGov Siraj. It is the lowest figure among all of the surveyed countries.
More than half of Gulf region employers, 54%, plan to recruit over the next few months. In Kuwait, just over a quarter of the respondents – 27 percent – said that their organizations would “definitely” be hiring in the next three months, while another 33 percent said they would “probably” be hiring. By contrast, only four percent said they would definitely not be hiring in the next quarter.
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, countries responding to the Jobs Index recorded varying levels of enthusiasm for recruiting staff. Respondents in Oman showed the strongest inclination towards hiring personnel, with 41% saying that their organizations would definitely be recruiting new staff in the coming months, while Jordanian employers showed the lowest level of interest in recruiting personnel, with just 18% of respondents saying they would definitely hire in the next three months.
The Jobs Index (JI) survey is conducted to gauge perceptions of job availability and hiring levels, 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 organizations would be aiming to fill in the next three months. For the most part, organizations are looking to recruit staff for less than five positions: 46% said that less than five jobs will be available, and 22% said that between six and 10 jobs would be available. Interestingly, two percent of respondents said that they will be looking to fill more than one hundred vacancies in the coming quarter. With no indications of the sizes of the companies in question given in the agency’s press release, it is difficult to determine the true significance of these figures.
The adverse effects of the global recession on hiring practices in the Middle East region seem to be easing. While some regional companies appear to be maintaining their human resources budgets at relatively low levels in a bid to save money, this climate of cost-consciousness and emphasis on maximizing returns on investment in the HR arena has been seen to favor leading online jobsites such as bayt.com where employers are aware that they can find the region’s top talent for key positions in the fastest,easiest, most effective and most cost-efficient manner,” noted Rabea Ataya, Bayt.com’s Chief Executive Officer.
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 receiving a job offer, with 34% of the organizations polled saying that they would be looking to appoint staff in this category. This was followed by 27 percent, who said that they would be looking to hire at the 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: four percent of the respondents said they would be seeking to appoint a new president, five percent said they plan to appoint a CEO, and another six percent said they would advertise vacancies for a COO, CFO or CMO.
Clearly, the Middle East, and more specifically the Gulf, is growing as a global finance and commerce hub, and as such, graduates in these fields are likely to find it easier than others to find employment,” said Sundip Chahal, the CEO of YouGov Siraj. “The figures also indicate what types of industries dominate in this region, which is clearly those concerned with business and trade.
Jobseekers in Oman are likely to be the luckiest in finding work in a year’s time, with 45 percent of the country respondents stating they will “definitely” be hiring in 12 months’ time. In Kuwait, only six percent said they will probably or definitely not be hiring in a year’s time. By contrast, 31% said they would definitely hire in a year. Respondents in Algeria were also highly confident that their organizations will be hiring in the future: 37% said they will definitely be hiring after a year. This is contrasted with just 24% and 23% of respondents in Tunisia and Egypt – the lowest figure among all of the surveyed countries.
When asked how they rate their current country of residence as a job market compared to those in the rest of the region, respondents in KSA, followed by the UAE, were the most positive about their country, with 46 and 44 percent respectively saying that it was much more attractive jobs-wise than other regional nations. In Kuwait, meanwhile, 32 percent said their country was much more attractive. The respondents were also asked to name which industries they feel are attracting or retaining the top talent in their country of residence today. As in the previous wave, the banking, finance (36%) and telecommunications (35%) sectors took the top spots in terms of those fields believed to be attracting the region’s top employees.
The studies that Bayt.com conducts alongside YouGov Siraj aim to provide the region’s organizations and HR professionals with regularly updated research that sheds light on various elements of the Middle East and North Africa job market. The Bayt.com Jobs Index has been designed to chart how the region’s job market changes from quarter to quarter, which will allow the region’s employers and other industry stakeholders to benefit from up to date job market information, which can be used for affecting positive organizational change and planning for the future,” Ataya concluded.
