The UAE exhibited the most positive employment growth among GCC countries last month, with hiring activity growing at 18 per cent as compared to the same period a year ago, a report said.

While Bahrain is growing at a modest 5 per cent year-on-year, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have all slipped into negative growth, according to the latest Monster Employment Index, a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Middle-East.

“For the first time since January 2015, the Monster Employment Index for the Middle East has slipped below the year-ago level,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com (India, Middle- East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).

“At the same time, e-recruitment activity in April 2016 is 10 per cent lower than in March 2016. A recent survey among investment experts suggests uncertainty in the GCC economy, with low oil prices, geo-political instability and lower expenditures being the most pressing concerns. The survey further revealed that finance professionals in the GCC will mostly face the brunt. Banks and other financial institutions have already announced job cuts in response to the changed economic reality.”

The banking and financial services (BFSI) industry is one of the worst performing, with a negative 30 per cent growth in April 2016 as compared to the previous year.

Looking at the UAE market specifically, certain sectors are still hiring robustly, despite a backdrop of economic uncertainty. The healthcare industry is the biggest generator of employment opportunities.

For the third month in a row, the industry is charting the steepest growth in year-on-year online recruitment activity; up by 45 per cent in April 2016. “This is not surprising, since the country is anticipated to require an annual increase of nearly 3 per cent in the number of hospital beds, demanding for more than 13,800 beds by 2020,” said Modi.

The key driver behind this upward trend is the rising health programs and improved regulatory frameworks by the UAE government; the country’s liberalizing policies are attracting global cross-border deals, allowing for mergers, acquisition and strategic tie ups between pharmaceutical players and hospitals to develop a world class healthcare infrastructure.

This is important when taking into account Baker & McKenzie latest Cross-Border M&A Index report, explaining the importance of M&As in supporting economic growth during tiring economic times; according to the report, the healthcare sector led Q1 of 2016 by value, with 92 deals worth $54 billion globally.

At the same time, the impressive annual growth on 49 per cent in job opportunities for healthcare professionals also mirrors the UAE’s focus on training and development of this profession. The Ministry of Health and Prevention has recently announced its plans to attract more Emirati men and women to the nursing sector, the Monster.com report said. – TradeArabia News Service