The Bayt.com Middle East Skills Report 2017

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, there is a rift between the skills employers seek and the ones held by job seekers, causing what has been termed the ‘skills gap’. But, what does this mean? What are the skills that employers consider so hard to find? Are they mostly soft skills or technical? Will technological acceleration change the nature of jobs as we know it or will it cause us to lose them in their totality as artificial intelligence takes over? The Bayt.com Skills report addresses all these issues and more. Check out the below highlights and download the full report for free.

Key findings:

• More than six in ten employers and five in ten job seekers believe there is a skills gap in the Middle East and North Africa region.
• 33% of job seekers consider ‘not knowing what skills the employer is looking for’ as the main reason they do not find jobs fitting their skills.
• On the employer side,27% of employers attribute ‘lack of relevant work experience’ as the top reason they do not find employees with the right skills.
• Team work and time management emerge as the most sought after skills overall.
• 49% of employer respondents claim they organize company training in order to help employees keep up with skills trends.
• Almost eight in ten job seekers (78%) are committed to acquire and develop new skills.
• According to employers, the top three skills to gain more importance in the next ten years are creative thinking (71%), technology and computer skills (70%) and time management (66%).

Data for the2017 Bayt.com Skills Report was collected online from April29th,2017 to May29th,2017. Results are based on a sample of9,481 respondents. Countries that participated include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE and Syria.

Are you looking for a new job? There are more than 35,000 jobs available on Bayt.com on any given day, including 5,000+ jobs in UAE! These jobs are available in different cities across the country, including 2500+ jobs in Dubai and 800+ jobs in Abu Dhabi.