Three quarters of working professionals in the UAE and Saudi Arabia plan to look for a new job this year as they seek a better work-life balance and higher salaries, a new global poll of 22,010 employees by professional network LinkedIn has found.
Professionals in marketing, education, finance, sales and media are most keen to look for new opportunities, while only 50 per cent of healthcare professionals are seeking new positions. However, more than half (51 per cent) said the job search became harder last year as the UAE recorded an influx of talent leading to a competitive job market, according to the survey.
The poll also covered 8,035 human resources professionals between November and December last year in markets including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK and US, among others. Nearly half (46 per cent) of HR professionals polled in the UAE and Saudi Arabia said the search to fill roles with qualified talent has become harder.
Professionals said they are applying for more jobs to increase their chances of securing a role. However, this strategy is not as effective as in the past, with many respondents believing that it has become harder to receive a response from recruiters.
“It’s easy to see why job seekers are applying to more roles than ever, trying to break through the challenging job market, but it’s not working,” Najat Abdelhadi, a career expert at LinkedIn, said. “However, the views of HR professionals we surveyed show that the hiring market is healthy – so professionals need to shift their approach and be more strategic in applying for roles that match their skillset so they stand out.”
The starting salaries for professional services roles in the UAE decreased by an average of 0.7 per cent in 2024 as an influx of talent and more competition created a surplus, recruitment consultancy Robert Half said in its 2025 UAE Salary Guide. The decline in salaries and oversupply of foreign talent is undermining in-role salary growth.
Employers may also struggle to find employees with the right skillsets, especially if they require Arabic speakers or those with previous UAE experience. To attract those already living and working in the country, remuneration will need to be competitive, the consultancy added.
Nearly six in 10 (58 per cent) employees in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are confident of securing new opportunities in 2025 due to their belief that the job market will improve, the LinkedIn research found.
However, hiring managers are finding the process of shortlisting suitable candidates increasingly challenging, with 29 per cent of HR professionals in the UAE and Saudi Arabia spending between three and five hours a day sifting through applications.
Nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent) said that less than half of the job applications they receive meet the criteria listed.
Meanwhile, media buyer, artificial intelligence engineer and real estate consultant ranked as the top three fastest-growing jobs in the UAE, while building information modelling co-ordinator and HR onboarding specialist were in-demand jobs in the kingdom, according to LinkedIn.
Jobs on the rise in the UAE
- Media buyer
- Artificial intelligence engineer
- Real estate consultant
- Sustainability manager
- Sales development representative
- Tax manager
- Process engineer
- Development specialist
- Financial adviser
- Machine learning engineer
