Analysis | Read time: 5 minutes
The list of which Gulf sectors are still recruiting is short: investment management and mining (each up 6%), finance (5%), data and AI (4%), cyber (2%) and manufacturing (2%) in the second quarter of 2026, according to Staffing Industry Analysts.
Those gains came while total GCC hiring fell 3% against the first quarter, based on data from Cooper Fitch, a Dubai-based recruitment firm that publishes the Gulf Employment Index. Employers kept hiring for roles tied to active delivery, revenue protection, financial control and regulatory compliance, and often postponed broader expansion hiring.
For a CHRO, this points to one practical step: match the roles that still receive approval to the national hiring targets that carry financial penalties.
Finance, Data and Mining Kept Hiring
The second-quarter index covers April to June, the first full quarter after the US-Israel-Iran war began on 28 February. Hiring in Saudi Arabia and Oman each rose 1%, while Bahrain fell 2%, the UAE and Kuwait each fell 4%, and Qatar fell 6%, as Staffing Industry Analysts reports.
Khaleej Times reports that Oman’s gain came with help from ports offering routes beyond the Strait of Hormuz, and that Bahrain’s Unemployment Insurance Fund limited its decline. The UAE recorded its first private-sector employment decline in more than four years.
Cooper Fitch’s index recorded a 12% contraction in March, when active conflict, Ramadan and Eid reduced hiring, and a 13% rebound in April after the 8 April ceasefire, according to Khaleej Times. Its chief executive, Trefor Murphy, described the April recovery as pent-up demand and said externally driven sectors stayed more cautious than domestic ones.
Hospitality and Sales Hiring Fell
Khaleej Times reports that second-quarter recruitment fell mostly in software, sales and marketing, public sector, cloud, supply chain, legal and human resources. Analysts told EnterpriseAM that the organisations reducing hiring depend on physical movement, footfall or cross-border trade. The World Bank cut its 2026 GCC growth forecast to 1.3% from 4.4% because of the conflict, as Khaleej Times notes.
Murphy told EnterpriseAM that employment tied to tourism, passenger movement and hospitality had slowed or stopped. In the first six weeks of the war, regional headhunters told AGBI that between 50% and 80% of live mandates were on hold, and that tourism, travel, hospitality and events felt the disruption first. Companies initially tried to retain staff by trimming pay and hours and offering unpaid leave, hoping the disruption would pass quickly, according to Semafor.
Murphy says UAE employers keep interviewing candidates to the last stage and then stop before making the hire, as EnterpriseAM reports. Cooper Fitch’s index put UAE hiring down 4% in the quarter, the sharpest fall in staffing levels since August 2020. Employers first expected the pattern to end in June, then July, and the end date is now open-ended.
Healthcare and AI Keep Receiving Investment
Analysts told EnterpriseAM that UAE employers were already moving investment toward functions linked to AI, data, financial services and healthcare before the war, and that the shock accelerated that reallocation. Healthcare does not appear among the sectors Cooper Fitch reported as gaining in the second quarter.
The shortage of healthcare staff predates the war. AGBI reported in February 2025 that recruitment was the biggest challenge for Gulf healthcare, and that the region needs about 12,300 more hospital beds by 2029, according to Alpen Capital.
The GCC had roughly 2.5 physicians and 6.5 nurses per 1,000 people, against 2.8 and 7.9 across OECD countries. These figures describe conditions before the war.
Each Missed Emirati Hire Costs AED 120,000
Emiratization is the UAE program that sets targets for Emirati employees in private companies. Companies with 50 or more workers must raise the number of Emiratis in skilled jobs by 2% a year, with 1% due in each half of the year, according to WAM. The overall target is 10% by the end of 2026.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) said it would begin charging AED 10,000 per month, or AED 120,000 a year, from 1 July 2026 for each position a non-compliant company fails to fill with an Emirati. A company that leaves five positions unfilled therefore owes AED 600,000 a year. MoHRE also warned that fake Emiratisation schemes count as serious violations and said its inspection system can detect them.
Saudi Arabia raised localisation rates in 2026. Its Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development announced on 19 January a 60% Saudisation rate for sales professions and for marketing professions in establishments with three or more workers, due three months later.
Envoy Global reports that procurement professions rose to 70% from 50% across 12 roles in companies with three or more employees, with a 31 May 2026 date. The tourism plan lists 41 professions and schedules its first phase from 22 April 2026, with quotas between 30% and 100%.
Match Approved Roles to National Hires
These steps connect the approved roles to the quota targets:
- List the requisitions likely to pass approval, starting with finance, compliance, data and cyber roles, the sectors that gained in the second quarter.
- Compare that list with unfilled UAE positions and with the Saudi profession rates that apply to each entity, using the MoHRE, Gulf Business and Envoy Global figures above.
- Use Nafis, the MoHRE platform that gives companies access to qualified Emirati job seekers.
Year-End Quota Deadlines Stay Fixed
Cooper Fitch says the second-half outlook depends on whether improved trade, travel and business visibility lead employers to act on hiring decisions they postponed in the second quarter, as Arabian Business reports.
The Emiratisation target for the second half stays at a further 1% of skilled jobs regardless of that outcome.
This suggests that a CHRO who places national hires into the finance, compliance and data roles approved now can meet the year-end date without waiting for conditions to improve.
