UAE Attracts Top Talent Ahead Of Expo 2020

The UAE is attracting top professional talent from across the world, building a strong talent pool ahead of Expo 2020, according to LinkedIn.

Around 49,000 LinkedIn members have moved to the UAE in the last 12 months. Research from LinkedIn has shown that the country is winning almost twice the number of professionals than it is losing.

The top international source markets for talent coming into the UAE were India, the UK and the US. Regionally, the country attracted skilled professionals from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Etisalat, the Jumeirah Group and Emirates Airlines are the top companies tapping into this current flow of talent into the region, according to LinkedIn.

Expo 2020 is expected to heavily impact the UAE’s job market with the event estimated to create around 200,000 jobs in various sectors.

“At LinkedIn, we rely heavily on numbers and figures to help companies make the best choices when it comes to acquiring talent, and our latest research showed that the United Arab Emirates is in a good shape ahead of 2020,” Pascale Comaty, MENA marketing manager, LinkedIn, wrote on the site’s official blog.

LinkedIn, the largest professional network, currently has over one million members in the UAE and over 10 million in the MENA region.

Hiring activity in the UAE is expected to begin by 2016, according to Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster.com in India, Middle East and South East Asia.

In an interview with Gulf Business earlier this month, Modi forecasted a positive year ahead for the job sector. Hiring activity is estimated to pick up in sectors such as construction, real estate and banking, he said.

HSBC’s Purchasing Managers Index too revealed that UAE firms were optimistic about hiring prospects and indicated a rising demand for labour.

“Workforce numbers have now increased continuously for almost two years and the rate of job creation in November was the highest since June,” the report said.