LinkedIn may add 50 jobs in Dubai as job recuitment shifts online

LinkedIn has shifted its focus to emerging markets to grow its revenues. It now has 12 million subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa and more than a million in the UAE.

Ali Matar, the head of talent at LinkedIn Middle East, says they have hundreds of corporate clients in the region. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
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LinkedIn is looking to double its workforce in the region as job recruitment shifts online.

The US-based networking site employs 50 people at its regional hub in Dubai. It plans to hire another 50 staff next year.

“The recruitment is in line with the growth of the business in the region,” said Ali Matar, the head of talent at LinkedIn Middle East. “We have hundreds of corporate clients. The GCC countries are economically stable, fast growing and about 50 per cent of the population is under 30.”

LinkedIn has 322 million users worldwide. The company has shifted its focus to emerging markets to grow its revenues. It now has 12 million subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa and more than a million in the UAE.

Last year LinkedIn made US$1.52 billion in global revenue. In the third quarter of this year LinkedIn reported revenue of $568m, an annual growth of 45 per cent as more businesses use the website to hire staff.

“Before LinkedIn to reach talent, you had to use the internet and job boards or go through headhunters,” he said.

Now, 44 per cent of recruiters across the Mena region use social networks to find talent, 34 per cent outsource or use a company career website and 31 per cent use internet job boards. While many people in the region still find jobs through friends and family, the shift to online has been noticeable.

Monster.com, a global online jobs board, registered a nine per cent growth in job postings in the Middle East this year when compared to the same period last year.

The UAE in particular jumped almost 20 per cent in online job postings.

“The UAE has bounced back in November as online recruitment activity exceeded the year-ago level by almost a fifth,” said Sanjay Modi, the managing director at Monster.com. “This rise is contributing to the increase in consumer optimism for the UAE and across the region.”

The ease and acceptance of online recruitment has pushed the growth. Gone are the days when having a profile on LinkedIn could get you fired. About 70 per cent of the people on LinkedIn are not actively looking for a job, and the website has become a place for companies to raise their brand awareness, said Mr Matar.

LinkedIn’s mission now is to have all three billion people in the global workforce create a profile on the website. It believes that it can achieve this within 10 years, since it is growing at a rate of two members per second. It also wants every company to be represented on the website. Currently 400 million companies are listed, posting 2 million jobs.

thamid@thenational.ae

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