The latest Middle East Job Index Survey, conducted by the Middle East’s leading job site, Bayt.com, and research and consulting firm, YouGov, revealed that, across the MENA region,43% of MENA companies are planning to hire in the next three months are looking to fill up to five jobs. In parallel, one in four companies are expecting to fill between six to ten jobs.
Long-term hiring prospects, however, are bright: seven in ten organizations in the region plan to recruit new employees in a year’s time. The industries with the highest intention to hire in twelve months’ time include Education/Academia (84%), Tourism/Hospitality (81%) and Consumer Goods (81%).
Hiring expectations in the MENA Region
According to working respondents in the MENA region,35% are ‘definitely hiring’ and25% are ‘probably hiring’ in the next three months, while just7% say that they are ‘definitely not hiring’ in the same time period. Focusing on future expectations, one third (33%) of working respondents in the region say that their companies will be ‘definitely hiring’ in a year’s time and38% claim that they will be ‘probably hiring’. On the other hand,4% are ‘definitely not hiring’ and20% ‘don’t know/can’t tell’ their intentions for recruitment in the coming year.
Among those hiring in the next three months in the MENA region,43% will open positions to fill a maximum of five job roles and approximately24% will be hiring for6-10 jobs. Almost half of respondents (49%) will be looking to hire ‘mid-career candidates with no managerial responsibilities’, while47% will be looking for ‘team leaders/supervisors’ and29% will be looking for ‘entry-level with no managerial responsibilities’. Only a quarter of respondents are seeking to hire a ‘manager’.
Over half of the MENA region’s working respondents (52%) state that, over the last three months, their company has hired new employees;15% say that they had new hires in the last six months.
Roles and experience employers are looking for
MENA companies are looking for candidates with managerial experience (39%), followed by computer skills (30%), while29% look for candidates with experience in sales and marketing.
Desired skills and qualifications
Good communication skills in Arabic and English is the most desired skill by65% of companies in the MENA region. Being a team player, good leadership qualities, the ability to work under pressure, and being effective/productive also highly valued skills for48%,43%,41% and41% of the region’s working respondents, respectively.
As for the most sought-after educational qualifications, graduate/post graduate degrees in Business Management (27%), Engineering (25%) and Commerce (23%) emerged as the most desired academic qualifications amongst MENA companies looking for a candidate.
Industries attracting top talent in the MENA Region
Respondents living in the MENA region claim that ‘construction’ (35%) and ‘banking and finance’ (33%) are the industries that attract and retain the best talents in the region.
Moreover,43% believe that their country of residence is more attractive as a job market than other MENA countries, while29% claim the opposite. This belief is much more common amongst GCC residents (58%) as compared to those living in North Africa (26%) and in Levant (23%).
“At Bayt.com there are currently more than10,000 jobs posted on the website on any given day. 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 the MENA region have changed since our last survey in July, indicating the fluidity of the overall market when it comes to employment options,” said Elissavet Vraka, Research Manager, YouGov.
24% of the MENA region private sector employees said they work in a multinational company, and16% in a large local company.15% of respondents are currently not working.
22% of working respondents claimed to be ‘junior managers/team leaders’,20% claimed to be ‘directors or senior managers’ followed by ‘middle managers’ (17%) and ‘professionals’ (15%). Of the MENA region respondents surveyed,16% 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.