Business & Money | Wednesday 17 June, 2015 1:27 pm |

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle-East based on a real-time review of tens of thousands of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career Web sites and online job listings. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.

“Saudi Arabia remains a strong market with increased growth across various sectors, as shown by our latest Monster Employment Index Middle East,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong). “Again, Saudi Arabia is the second most active market in the region during the month of May 2015, with a 32% increase in online job listings, closely following Egypt which continues to be the leader with 33% increase in online job listings as compared to last year.”
“The creative industry continues to lead the growth momentum, with an increase in demand for online jobs of 57% compared to last year. However, month on month, the growth momentum has slowed down from the impressive 77% in April 2015. The two other industries which are hiring are IT & Telecom and Retail / Trade & Logistics, with a 41% year on year and 36% year on year, respectively.
“Occupation wise, software, hardware and telecoms specialists were the most sought after position during May 2015, closely followed by creative specialists (marketing / communications) with a 51% increase from the same period last year,” added Modi.
“Kuwait is the only country in the region with a 1% decrease in online job listings activity for the month of May 2015, as compared to the same period last year,” continued Modi.


KSA Highlights

Monster Employment Index KSA grows 32 percent on the year; same as in April 2015
Advertising, Market Research, Public Relations, Media and Entertainment leads all industry groups on the year
Annual growth rate plunges in Oil and Gas sector yet again
Among occupation groups, Software, Hardware, Telecom registers the steepest growth in demand, year-on-year









Geographic Year-over-year Trends: Online hiring surpassed the year-ago level in six out of seven countries monitored by the Index.

Egypt (up 33 percent) supplanted KSA (up 32 percent) this month to lead all countries by the way of long term-growth. It is notable that the long-term growth momentum slowed in both the countries between April and May 2015.

Online recruitment market continues to grow in UAE (up five percent) as well but at a slower pace on the year. The three-month growth turned is positive even this month. Clearly, there is increased hiring in the last two of months.

Kuwait (down one percent) is the only country to exhibit negative annual growth rate even this month. As the rate of growth improves further, the Index reading for the series nearer May 2014.