Of course it goes without saying that your friendly folks at bayt.com are not soothsayers and we have no crystal ball but we have our fair share of extremely fresh, relevant and detailed regional jobs related data thanks to our jobcounts, community profiles, employer feedback, jobseeker feedback, surveys and polls, and so are relatively confident enough this time of year to tell you 2011 looks rosy for you our prized jobseeker community and rosy as well for our prized community of regional employers.
Circumstances we project should be ideal for steady and sane employment growth in the region and while we do not expect to see anywhere near a return to the mid-2000s era of throwing all caution to the winds when it comes to upping headcounts, we are already starting to see across the region and across industry sectors a return to growth, vis-a-vis the state of simply staying above water or at most maintaining the status quo that the past 2 years have been largely about.
What brings about our tempered optimism? A combination of the following factors all of which bode well for our prized community:-
- Employers are still relatively wary and relatively short on HR budget but more more confident and more apt to extend themselves into new areas and take risk than they were a year ago as confirmed by the Bayt.com Middle East Jobs Index Survey which shows 54% of employers looking to hire in next 3 months and 69% looking to hire in next 12 months versus 52% and 66% for these time periods measured exactly a year ago.
- Employers are more and more comfortable with online recruitment and increasingly see it as an indispensable component in a holistic HR dossier as confirmed by a 2010 Bayt.com poll which showed that online jobsites are perceived to be the most effective recruitment method today as per 34.5% of participants, the largest group.
- Jobseekers are also realizing that there is no substitute for online recruitment sites in reaching the region's top employers as well as top recruitment agencies and executive search firms. We have seen this in the tremendous growth numbers we registered this year at every career level from entry level to senior executive and this has been translated into a doubling of job postings on the site as more and more employers gravitate to our fast growing community of highly qualified professionals. In 2010 alone we saw more than 22 million job applications on bayt.com .
- Jobseekers are also more confident in the economy and star employees are therefore once again more likely to take risks with their careers by shifting to better, more promising roles and industries. However the difference between 2010 and the mid 2000s is that we see none of the wage inflation and inefficiencies. Jobseekers are receiving packages commensurate with global pay practices with very little of the past decade's cushioning that had less to do with qualifications, roles and responsibilities than with a frenetically based regional economy and excess demand for talent.
Our latest Consumer Confidence Index survey confirms the optimism and shows that 48% of regional professionals expect their financial situation will be better in a year's time.
- Fifa Fo Fum. You know the name of that giant and you know they're coming to town. I say ''town'' loosely because we are firmly convinced that Qatar's gain will be the region's gain when it comes to recruitment, particularly in the construction, ÍT and hospitality sectors and their peripheries. What leading pan-regional online jobsites such as bayt.com have enabled in terms of cross-border labour mobility will be at a premium now more than ever and talented jobseekers with relevant qualifications from across the region will be empowered to access Qatar's growth sectors online.
- The investment is paying off. The region has come of age as a talent hub and the world-class soft and hard infrastructures that have been constructed across the Levant and GCC have improved quality of life for regional professionals and made the region a highly attractive place to live and work.
As per the bayt.com Best Cities to Work in the Middle East 2010 survey, whether it comes to environmental factors, social factors, economic or recreational factors, there seems to be something in the region for everyone and absent the mad rush for schools and housing and top quality healthcare that we witnessed a few years back, the region is overall perceived as a destination of choice for ambitious professionals who do not wish to sacrifice on quality of life.
The long and short of it is that we foresee 2011 will be less about glamour and glitz in the company foyer than about rebuilding regional companies' core foundations, principally their people assets, which is great news for the region as the mid-2000s reinforced pan-regionally that all that glitters is not necessarily the stuff of great longevity, efficiency, sustainability or utilitarian appeal.
