DUBAI—Home to 700,000 Filipinos, the United Arab Emirates never seems to run out of good news in business.
According to the latest data, business conditions in the UAE have improved, with the growth of non-oil private sector accelerating to a 10-month high, partly buoyed by a slight uptick in hiring activity in certain industries.
At least 4,787 new business licenses were registered after the first half of the year.
The Emirates NBD Purchasing Managers’ Index for July, a benchmark for the operating conditions in the non-oil private sector, indicated that some companies are still hiring new employees.
The bank said the pace of hiring “quickened to a 14-month high,” contrasting with the trend over the second quarter, when employment was either stagnant or barely rising.
“The rate of job creation was the fastest in over a year,” the bank said in a statement sent to Gulf News.
The bank’s findings coincided with the recent employment data released by other analysts. According to the Monster Employment Index, job listings in the UAE went up by 10 percent in June 2016 compared to a year earlier.
“We expect this positive trend to continue, especially in the UAE, which is seen by economists as the most promising economy in [the Middle East and North Africa],” said Sanjay Modi, managing director for Asia Pacific and Middle East at Monster.com.
UAE is home to thousands of expatriates, including around 700,000 Filipinos, with around 450,000 of them living in Dubai, considered the center of commerce not just in UAE but also in the whole Middle East.
With the Philippines producing thousands of nursing graduates every year, UAE could become the number one destination for them, more so since ‘businesses in the healthcare sector (in the UAE) continue to drive the demand for new employees.’
Vacancy listings in the industry grew by 46 per cent in June 2016 as compared to the same period last year, according to Modi.
“With the mandatory health insurance scheme in place, the country’s multi-billion-dollar healthcare industry could continue growing double digits in 2016, as all sponsors are now required to enroll their employees for a mandatory medical coverage plan,” Monster.com said
Jean Paul Pigat, senior economist at Emirates NBD, said the survey compiled by Markit suggested that the size of the UAE’s workforce expanded in July when compared with the previous month, with the employment index going up from 50.5 in June to 52.9 in July- registering an average of 51.5 over the past 12 months.
Boosting the UAE economy, a total of 2,448 new business licenses were issued in the capital in the second quarter, raising to 4,787 the overall total number of new commercial licenses registered by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development’s (Added) and Abu Dhabi Business Centre (ADBC) during the first half of 2016, according to Khaleej Times.
Khalifa bin Salem Al Mansouri, Added’s acting undersecretary, said “the ongoing surge in the registration of new businesses despite the negative effects and crises in the global markets reflects the interest shown by local and foreign businessmen and investors in seizing economic opportunities in Abu Dhabi.”
The surge in investments means more opportunities for job-seekers, including thousands of Filipinos back home who may be eyeing job offers in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates that is friendly to labor.