Employment in UAE up 6% in 2015

Dubai - 4.7 million employees registered with MoL; health sector records highest growth.

The number of employees registered with the Ministry of Labour (MoL) increased by 6 per cent last year, according to the statistics released by the ministry.
Health sector topped the chart for the second consecutive year amongst all economic sectors in terms of highest growth in employment rates.
Humaid bin Deemas Al Suwaidi, Undersecretary of Labour Affairs, said: "Labour market statistics show an increase in employment numbers last year, and the proportion of skilled talents has grown as well. Employment at knowledge-based economy sectors has shown great results, which reflects and confirms the strength and diversity of the national economy and government policies."
"The number of registered employees at the Ministry of Labour reached about 4.7 million by the end of last year, compared to 4.417 million workers in 2014, he said, noting that the rate of employment growth in the private sector is high compared to the rates worldwide, which ranges from 1 to 2 per cent. This indicates that the labour market in the country is one of the most attractive," Al Suwaidi added.
"The percentage of workers registered at the ministry with fourth and fifth skill levels are around 79 per cent of the total employment while the number of workers enjoying first, second and third levels reached about one million - 21 per cent, a rate that rose upwards over the last three years. In 2013 the numbers reached about 20 per cent and in 2014 it reached about 20.5 per cent."
"The number of skilled talents in the past year recorded an overall growth of about 12 per cent," he said.
"Around 68,000 of the new workers are employed in the health sector, recording an employment increase of about 18 per cent last year, followed by the financial sector with 57,000 employees recording an employment growth rate of 13 per cent while the education sector which saw 79,000 employments had a growth rate of about 7 per cent."
He noted construction, trade and industry sectors were the top three sectors with highest employment rates in the labour market in terms of numbers.
Al Suwaidi said the number of establishments registered with the ministry saw an increase of about 12,000 facilities in 2015. Last year saw 325,000 facilities registered across the UAE, including 9,500 facilities with large and medium employment numbers, accounting to 51 per cent of the total employment numbers in the UAE.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE