Monster Employment Index Middle East rises 8% on annual basis

"Middle East Employers continue to adopt a cautious approach due to the current global economic scenario. Hospitality and related occupation group-Hospitality and Travel continue to show the positive annual growth in January," said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/ Middle- East/ South East Asia).

Industry Year-over-Year Trends: Online opportunities exceeded January'12 levels in eight of the 12 industry sectors monitored by the index.

•Hospitality (up 50%) led all sectors followed by Retail/Trade and Logistics (up 7%).
•Chemicals/ Plastic/ Rubber, Paints, Fertilizer/ Pesticides (down 24%) registered the steepest annual decline.

Occupation Year-over-Year Trends: Five of 11 occupation groups registered improved online demand over the year.

•Hospitality (up 37%) led all occupational groups in year-over-year growth.
•Marketing & Communications/Arts/Creative (down 13%) and Legal (down 13%) professionals registered the weakest long-term trend.

Geographic Year-over-year Trends: Online opportunities exceeded January'12 level in four of the seven countries monitored by the Index.

•UAE (up 23%) followed by Qatar (up 18%) led all countries in year-over-year growth.
•KSA (down 17%) and Kuwait (down 17%) registered the steepest decline over the past 12 months.

Country- Wise Trends
KSA Highlights
•Online recruitment activity in KSA declines 17% from January'12 level.
•Oil and Gas (up 24%) followed by Consumer Goods/ FMCG, Food & Packaged Food , Home Appliance, Garments/ Textiles/ Leather, Gems & Jewellery (up 5%) are the only two sectors to have registered positive annual growth.
•Among occupation groups, Hospitality and Travel (up 46%) registered highest annual growth.

UAE Highlights
•UAE registers annual growth of 23%.
•Hospitality (up 39%) records the most notable growth in online opportunities over the year.
•Hospitality and Travel (up 26%) leads in annual growth amongst the occupation groups.