Covid-19: These UAE companies will continue hiring, say recruitment consultants

Dubai - 'E-commerce and e-logistics sectors that may benefit from this pandemic'

Though vast majority of firms in the UAE are making employees redundant due to slowdown from impact of coronavirus, but companies in certain sectors will grow and need to recruit people in coming months due to changing work dynamics, says recruitment consultants.
They said companies involved in internet services, e-commerce, distribution, logistics, software, FMCG and healthcare sectors will add more employees to meet demand for work-from-home, distance learning growing number of patients and to ensure deliveries of goods within country.
This is one of the key reasons that the government has asked 80 per cent of private sector employees to work from home but announced exemptions for certain sectors such as healthcare, logistics, industrial and manufacturing, cleaning others and few others.
"It is fair to say that the vast majority of businesses will be impacted by the current changes in the economic landscape, and will move towards utilising virtual and remote work tools, relying heavily on technology for business continuity. In light of the ongoing Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, sectors that are expected to grow over the next few months include Internet/e-commerce, distribution/logistics and software development," said Akram Assaf, Chief Technology Officer, Bayt.com
"If we compare November 2019 to February 2020, we find that the number of jobs announced on our website increased by 18 per cent for the Internet/e-commerce sector, 60 per cent for the distribution/logistics sector, and 13 per cent for the software development sector," he said.
According to the Bayt.com Job Index survey conducted in March, IT, Internet, e-commerce and consumer goods, FMCG were among the top industries that will be hiring in the coming three months.
Vijay Gandhi, regional director for Korn Ferry Digital, said the pandemic will change the demand and supply of jobs in the short-term.
"There is no doubt that many industries that are harmed and people working in these areas will lose their jobs. However, there will be e-commerce and e-logistics sectors that may benefit from this pandemic," he said.
Given the change in the way people are working from home at the moment, Gandhi noted that the current trends will benefit organisations with robust online presence.
"Online retailers will have to fulfil order delivery and grocery delivery services are hiring globally. Technology companies and services such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams are hiring with sudden rise in platform users - content providers to gaming, e-learning and online distance-learning courses will also rise," Gandhi added.
Jason Grundy, managing director at Robert Walters Middle East & Africa, said online grocers and retails are frantic as are medical devices companies in recruiting more people. In addition, digitization projects are also adding people to execute them.
"When the Covid-19 pandemic ends is debatable but once this happens we envisage a boost across all sectors which have held back from hiring. Key sectors will be education, FMCG, manufacturing, technology and tourism will return," Grundy added.
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

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