White-Collar Temps To Drive Expo 2020 Job Market – Experts

Experts predict that hosting the World Expo 2020 is expected to create over 200,000 jobs over the next five years.

The Expo job surge is expected to add at least 1.5 per cent to the UAE’s GDP in the run up to the event.

According to recruitment group ManpowerGroup Middle East, the job count will comprise of mostly temporary positions and contract staffing.

“Contract staffing in the UAE will become a trend over the next six years proving to be a far more viable option than the alternative,” said Simon Matthews, managing director, ManpowerGroup Thailand, Vietnam and Middle East.

“As industries such as construction, infrastructure, real estate, hospitality, travel and tourism gear up for the coming years they will look at investing in outsourcing solutions that are cost-effective and efficient.”

According to Matthews, research indicates that a large proportion of positions opening over the next six years in the UAE will be white-collar professional roles.

“We see more positions opening for professionals in thriving industries leading up to Expo 2020. There will be an influx of specialised projects requiring specialised skills and expertise leading to a demand in industry professionals and also forcing companies to seek temporary staff for this period.”

To be more specific, a MEED report predicts more than 277,000 jobs will be created between 2013 and 2021, with around 40 per cent of them in the travel and tourism sector.

It also forecasts that for every Expo employee, around 60 additional jobs would be sustained in the wider economy – a notion Reem Al Hashimy, managing director of Dubai’s bid, stressed in her final address in Paris; Dubai’s Expo is about more than just Dubai, it is for the wider MENA region.

“Expo 2020 will have a positive impact on the UAE job market in the sense that it will create more opportunities in addition to attracting talent to the region,” said Martin McGuigan, head of reward consulting at Aon Hewitt Middle East.

“This in turn will help raise the overall standard of a company’s workforce, leading to greater productivity and quality of output.”