The latest Middle East Job Index Survey, conducted by the Middle East’s leading job site, Bayt.com, and research and consulting firm, YouGov, has revealed that57% of working respondents in Qatar expect their employers to be hiring in the next three months;34% of them saying they will be definitely hiring. The majority of respondents in Qatar said that, in the next three months, they will be mostly hiring accountants (19%), sales managers (19%) and engineers (19%).
Hiring expectations in Qatar
According to working respondents in Qatar,34% are ‘definitely hiring’ and23% are ‘probably hiring’ in the next three months, while just6% said that they are ‘definitely not hiring’ in the same time period. Focusing on future expectations, seven in10 Qatar respondents state that their companies will be hiring in a year’s time; with ‘definitely hiring’ and ‘probably hiring’ both following at35%. On the other hand,4% are ‘definitely not hiring’ and16% ‘don’t know/can’t tell’ their intentions for recruitment in the coming year.
Among those hiring in the next three months in Qatar, a quarter will open positions to hire less than5 jobs and another quarter will have6-10 new job openings. More than half of them (52%) will be looking for ‘team leaders/supervisors’;44% will be looking to hire ‘mid-career candidates with no managerial responsibilities’;30% will be looking for ‘managers’ and another30% will be searching for ‘entry-level candidates with no managerial responsibilities’.
More than half of working respondents in Qatar (53%) claim that, over the last three months, their company has hired new employees;14% say that they had new hires in the last six months.
Roles and experience employers are looking for
Qatar companies are looking for candidates with managerial experience (46%), while40% look for engineering experience. A third (33%) are looking to hire candidates with good computer skills, and27% are looking for candidates with senior-level experience (7 to10 years).
Desired skills and qualifications
Good communication skills in English and Arabic is the most desired skill by63% of companies in Qatar. Working well in teams, leadership, and efficiency and productivity are also highly valued skills for55%,55% and47% of Qatar working respondents, respectively. The ability to work under pressure falls closely, at45%
As for the most sought-after educational qualifications, graduate/postgraduate degrees in Business Management and Engineering emerge as the most desired academic qualifications when looking for candidates in Qatar (both at35%).
Industries attracting top talent in Qatar
Respondents living in Qatar claim that the ‘construction’ (52%) industry attracts and retains the best talents in the country.
On another note, three in10 Qatar respondents believe that their industry is equally as attractive as a potential employer when compared to other industries, while more than a quarter (26%) consider it to be much more attractive. On a national level,43% of respondents consider Qatar as a much more attractive job market when compared to other countries in the MENA region.
“At Bayt.com there are currently more than10,000 jobs posted on the website on any given day. In the UAE alone, we have more than4,000 job vacancies. This augments the tremendous amount of recruitment that takes place via the Bayt.com CV Search functionality for employers who prefer not to immediately advertise their pressing job vacancies, which recruiters can try for free on https://www.bayt.com/en/search-cv/. Jobseeker registration on our website is growing at over12,000 new professionals a day and continues to reflect a healthy appetite for jobs across the industrial and career spectrum,” said Suhail Masri, VP of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com.
He continued, “Of particular note has been the uptake of corporate consumption of our proprietary branded career channel platform, Talentera, which empowers corporates big and small to seamlessly integrate and comprehensively manage, monitor and measure their entire recruitment function in-house using the award-winning technology Bayt.com has pioneered.”
“It is interesting to see the most popular job roles in Qatar have changed since our last survey in July, indicating the fluidity of the Qatar market when it comes to employment options,” said Elissavet Vraka, Research Manager, YouGov.
Of Qatar respondents working in the private sector,39% of them said they work in a multinational company and17% in a small or medium-sized local company.10% of respondents are currently not working.
21% of working respondents in Qatar claimed to be ‘junior managers/team leaders’ and20% said they were ‘middle managers’. Of the Qatar respondents surveyed,30% work in the construction industry.
Data for the Bayt.com Middle East Job Index Survey was collected online between December8,2015 and January21,2016, with a total of1,232 online interviews conducted with respondents from the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Pakistan.