Which GCC Sectors Are Still Hiring — and Which Have Stalled

"The market is slow" is one of the least useful things anyone can tell a job seeker. It is also, in the Gulf right now, not quite true.

Regional hiring fell three per cent in the second quarter of 2026, according to Cooper Fitch's Gulf Employment Index. But underneath that figure, some sectors grew while others contracted sharply. Knowing which is which is worth more than any general read on market sentiment.

Where hiring grew

Four areas recorded growth in Q2:

Investment finance — up 6 per cent Finance — up 5 per cent Data and AI — up 4 per cent Cyber security — up 2 per cent

There is an honest caveat attached to these figures, and it comes from Cooper Fitch itself. Dr Trefor Murphy noted that some of this growth reflects a timing effect rather than genuine market strength — these functions simply did not hire much in the first quarter, so the second quarter looks stronger by comparison. Treat the numbers as a signal, not a promise.

That said, the pattern is consistent with what employers say they are protecting. Firms across the region have narrowed hiring to roles tied to active delivery, revenue protection, financial control, regulatory compliance and operational continuity. Finance and compliance functions sit squarely inside that definition. They are the roles a company cannot postpone without consequence.

Where hiring fell

The declines were concentrated in software, sales and marketing, public sector, cloud, supply chain, legal and human resources.

Some of these are intuitive. Supply chain hiring fell in a quarter defined by disrupted supply chains — though that sounds contradictory, the logic holds: when trade routes are unreliable, companies shrink operations rather than staff up to manage them.

Others are less obvious. Sales and marketing typically contracts first in any downturn, because expansion hiring is the easiest category to defer. Human resources falls for the same reason — a smaller hiring programme needs fewer people to run it.

The software and cloud declines deserve particular attention, because they sit uncomfortably beside the growth in data and AI. Both cannot be a straightforward read on technology demand. The more plausible explanation is that generalist technology hiring slowed while specialist hiring continued.

The AI signal is real, but smaller than the headlines suggest

Two data points are worth holding together.

GulfTalent reports that AI now appears in roughly one in thirty Gulf job vacancies — triple the level of four years ago. PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer placed the UAE thirteenth globally for AI-related job postings, with the share of jobs requiring AI skills rising from one per cent in 2021 to 3.2 per cent, representing more than 12,200 positions.

That is genuine, rapid growth. It is also, in absolute terms, a small slice of the market. One in thirty vacancies means twenty-nine in thirty do not mention AI at all.

The practical reading is not "retrain as an AI engineer." It is that AI literacy has become a differentiator within existing roles rather than a separate career path for most people. A finance professional who can work with analytics tools is more employable than one who cannot. That is a very different proposition from becoming a machine-learning specialist.

Recruiters in the UAE have described the shortage as specific rather than general — not a broad skills gap, but a limited supply of specialised AI, machine learning and analytics talent.

What about salaries?

Cooper Fitch anticipated wage growth of two to three per cent across the region for 2026, though Murphy has noted that many companies may offer no increase at all depending on how quickly conditions improve.

The exception is where shortages are acute. Sectors facing genuine talent scarcity — technology and healthcare in particular — have been expected to offer increases in the range of six to ten per cent. Compensation is being tied more closely to specific skills and role impact than distributed across the board.

How to use this

If you work in finance, compliance, investment or cyber security, the market is more open to you than the regional headline suggests. Move now, while the window is there.

If you work in sales, marketing, HR or generalist technology, the market is genuinely harder — but the roles that remain are the ones tied to revenue and delivery. Position yourself against those, not against growth or expansion projects that are currently on hold.

And whatever your field, the specialization point holds across every sector in the data. Roles requiring rare, specific expertise are still competitive. Roles that many people could fill are not.

Sources: Cooper Fitch Gulf Employment Index Q2 2026; PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer; GulfTalent. Data current as of publication.