Online Middle East Recruitment
by Dana F
Middle East Online Job Market ExpansionIf you've ever wondered about working in the Middle East and took the prospect seriously of earning tax free dollars then where would you start?Well for 9.6 of people living in the Middle East they could give the Internet a try. A report from Internet Business Network, 77 of Internet users who are looking for a job use the 'Net to do so. The number of online job seekers living in the Middle East are small in terms of numbers but according to Headhunt-me.com more than three quarters of their Internet traffic comes from outside of the Middle East. This means a very large number of expatriate job seekers are looking for jobs in the middle east through the Internet, which makes perfect sense considering the geographic location of these people. Currently there are many online job portals in the world but very few Middle Eastern focused sites. One of the biggest sites in this field is Headhunt-me.com. The site has been around since 2003 and since it is based out of Oman it is distinctly Arabian, many of the other Internet recruitment sites only offer English. The Headhunt-me.com site has both English and Arab text which is very rare for employment sites and is also completely free making it popular with both job seekers and employers.According to Mr Habib the founder of the site, the Middle East market is still very much in it's infancy but it is showing signs of growing. The site currently receives around 2000 unique visitors a day and has expanded significantly with operations in Bahrain and Oman. Hiring recruits can often be a costly business but as a report from SHRM showed, the average cost per hire from an Internet recruiting strategy was $377 in comparison to the average cost per hire of $3,295 from a major metro newspaper. These are American numbers but it does show that traditional advertising is far more cumbersome than the new Internet media in terms of reaching the right candidates. As for successful hires most hiring does come from word of mouth but when you are recruiting internationally this can often be unreliable and infrequent. The Internet opens up new channels to meet suitable candidates. Loyalty to Internet recruitment sites is also interesting as candidates generally stick to one site. For example, 67 percent of HotJobs visitors are exclusive users, while 58 percent of Monster visitors are exclusive users to their site. Source: Jupiter Media MetrixThis means recruiters need to post their jobs on multiple sites to increase their exposure to the desired candidates. Many of these sites do require a fee so make sure that you understand the position before posting your job so beware of this before making rash decisions.The Middle East online market has grown by 454.2 since 2000 and with such low penetration this growth is expected to continue for some time still. Many of the Arab states are allowing more privatization and this should encourage a rapid expansion in the online recruitment environment. Source: http://www.headhunt-me.com Source: www.internetworldstats.com
About the Author
Dana is a public relations specialist based in Oman. She can read and write in Arabic but studied in the UK. Dana has recently joined Arabic Insurance and is a valuable member of the team. Visit their website at: http://www.arabicinsurance.com
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