The shrinking employment pool for UAE jobseekers

The number of jobseekers in the UAE rose by 22 percent year-on-year in 2016, while the number of available jobs in the market dropped, according to new research.

Recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley’s latest UAE Employment Monitor identified a shortfall in vacancies for the UAE’s jobseekers.

While the number of jobseekers in the market rose almost a quarter between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, the number of new jobs available in the professional hiring market dropped 12 percent over the same period.

The same trend could be seen quarter on quarter, the report showed. The number of professionals seeking jobs increased by 31 percent to 4,982 yet between the fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, yet the number of jobs available in the first quarter of 2016 was 7,212 compared with 7,899 in Q4 2015.

Meanwhile, demand for consultants and consultancy firms was stronger in quarter one 2016 “than expected”, said Morgan McKinley, adding that this is set to continue for the rest of the year.

“It was a more challenging start to the year than usual,” said Trefor Murphy, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa region at Morgan McKinley. “The general feeling is that it’s a tough market out there, but then again, it’s a tough market everywhere at the moment.”

In particular, the report noted, there has been an influx of oil and gas workers into the job market, which has hiked up jobseeker numbers.

“When the price of a barrel of oil goes from $125 to $35 the economy will inevitably have difficulties,” Murphy said.

Banking and financial services clients have also decreased hiring levels with the knock-on effect of protracted weakness in commodity prices, the report said, adding: “Overall redundancies have been on the increase, however with the bottoming out of the oil price, redundancies in this sector have started to slow down.”

However, as many of the oil and gas industry workers who have been laid off have remained in the region, these candidates are having a tough time transitioning into a new career while the jobs market remains competitive.

Murphy said the challenge for recruiters at present is not the number of candidates, but finding high calibre ones. “The challenge is to find those high-end candidates. Those job seekers who can show a solid professional track record are the ones who employers are after.”

Still, there remains appetite to hire. “Although the market is not going at full throttle, there is still a general air of optimism with employers using this period to drive organisational efficiencies. We see this in the increased use of consultants and fixed term projects.”