CAIRO: In Egypt, 22 percent of employers surveyed said that they would ‘definitely' be hiring during the last quarter of 2010, alongside another 29 percent indicating that they would ‘probably' seek to hire new staff, a survey found. On the other hand, the latest Bayt.com Job Index survey found that 6 percent of respondents would not be hiring before the end of the year. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that graduates or postgraduates in business management throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are best placed to land future employment. According to the study, 26 percent of organizations in the Middle East have a predilection for staff with business related qualifications. Those with graduate or postgraduate backgrounds in commerce or administration are also prized, as 24 percent and 23 percent of respondents, respectively, noted these specializations as “highly desirable.” “The Middle East, and more specifically the Gulf, is growing as a global finance and commerce hub, and as such, graduates in these fields are likely to find it easier than others to find employment,” said Sundip Chahal, CEO of YouGov Siraj. Rigorous language abilities, particularly both English and Arabic, is a strongly sought after criteria for employers, as 61 percent of respondents stated this to be the case, the study found. Although such skill sets are often at the top of an employers list in Egypt and elsewhere, there is a “gap” between the skills that new Egyptian graduates are offering and the skills local employers need, highlighted Magda Kandil, executive director and director of research at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies. Many new graduates, she stated, can't find jobs, because their professional profiles fail to align with employers' demands and expectations. Commenting on the results of the survey regarding a projected boost in hiring in the coming three months, Kandil explained that such a finding is unsurprising given that the “most major economic indicators are up.” “Data for growth, exports and tourism are positive,” which is having an impact on economic activity, and in turn, inexorably leads to a wave of hiring, she said. She added, “The private sector waits for good news, then reacts to it; as well, before and during the crisis, firms were reluctant (to hire), and needed more signs of certainty” before expanding personnel. In spite of the survey's upbeat findings, Kandil noted that unemployment figures remain high. The official figure for unemployment, she stated, stands at 9.6 percent, while the Population Council in Egypt, a non-governmental, research-focused organization, believes that unemployment is as high as 15.8 percent. Further, the council indicates, according to Kandil, that the number skewed upwards in the case of females. According to the council's figures, 12.9 percent of males are unemployed, while the figure for females is 31.7 percent. There is also a slight difference between urban, rural and slum dwellers: 16.9 percent of those living in urban areas are unemployed, while 14.8 percent and 18.8 percent of those living in rural and slum areas are without employment. Asked why such a patent disparity exists between the official and the council's numbers, Kandil said that perhaps the official numbers fail to take into account employment in the informal sector. She noted that the results can differ due to the manner in which one asks the question of whether an individual is employed or not. The government, Kandil explained, has become increasingly sensitive toward the issue of the substantial unemployment, which has been one of the main drivers of social inequality in the country. To address the labor market rigidity and bolster employment figures, the Egyptian government has introduced a credit policy, an incentive tax as well as having sought to eliminate excessive bureaucratic red tape to help usher in the informal sector into the formal market place. Although Kandil is more optimistic in the short-term — much like the results of the survey for the next three months — she is troubled by what she sees as “persistent structural issues” that have yet to be tackled. The October 2010 Jobs Index was conducted between Sept. 15 and Oct. 13, 2010, with 4,765 executive managers, human resources managers and senior officials from the United Arab Emerates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Pakistan. Regional results Respondents in Oman had the highest propensity to hire, with 35 percent saying that their organizations will definitely be recruiting new staff in the coming period. Commenting on the survey results in a note, Amer Zureikat, vice president of sales at Bayt.com, said, “The global recession still seems to be affecting parts of the region. Regional companies seem to be maintaining a climate of cost-consciousness and an emphasis on maximizing returns on investment specifically in the [human resources] arena. The results are based on the Hiring Expectancy Index (HEI), which in the long term found that 69 percent of the region's organizations expect to hire. Job seekers in Saudi Arabia should have an easier time as 39 percent of the country's respondents said they will “definitely” be hiring in 12 months' time. In Egypt, only 4 percent said they will probably or definitely not be hiring in a year's time. A total of 36 percent of respondents in Algeria were highly confident that their organizations will be hiring after a year, contrasting with just 24 percent of respondents in Morocco and 20 percent in Tunisia.
