Revealed: Industries offering the ‘best career growth’ prospects in UAE

The industry that currently offers the “best career growth prospects” in the UAE is oil and gas, a new survey by job site Bayt.com has found.

While 24 per cent of the respondents chose oil/gas/petrochemicals as the top industry, 18 per cent favoured IT/internet/e-commerce, and 14 per cent chose real estate/ construction/property development.

Industries perceived to hire the highest proportion of fresh graduates were found to be banking/finance (19 per cent), IT/internet/e-commerce (18 per cent), and advertising/marketing (11 per cent).

Those offering the most competitive packages were perceived to be military/ defence/ police (40 per cent), followed by engineering/design, automotive, and HR.

According to the survey, the sectors most attractive to women were education/academia (24 per cent), healthcare (24 per cent), HR (21 per cent), and hospitality (20 per cent).

The poll also found that almost a quarter of UAE respondents have changed their industry at least once in the past two years.

For those who have changed industries, some of the common reasons were: ‘To fulfil my life’s ambition’ (31 per cent), ‘better career growth opportunities’ (31 per cent), and ‘new industry offered opportunity to stay close to my family’ (28 per cent).

More than half of the respondents in the UAE (58 per cent) are also considering an industry change in the next few months.

The main reasons include ‘better salary’ (49 per cent),’better career growth'(44 per cent), and ‘better work-life balance’ (32 per cent).

Zafar Shah, research director, Data Services at YouGov MENA said: “In order to learn the best ways to attract and recruit professionals, you should first understand which industries they’re moving to, which they’re leaving from, and why.”

Data for the survey was collected online from August 8, 2019 to September 15, 2019.