|
UAE Freezones Biz News Updates
|
|
Jobs in UAE: These professionals are in high demand in 2018
Analysts are of the view that there is shortage of lawyers and tax experts
in the region as the adverts for professional positions increased by 25 per
cent between the fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of this year. -
alamy.com
Implementation of VAT in the Gulf region will continue to boost the demand
for VAT experienced professionals.
Demand for technology and accounting jobs is on the rise across the UAE as
businesses continue to invest in massive digital transformation, cyber
security, big data and cloud infrastructure projects in addition to ensure a
VAT-complaint system in place.
Recruitment firms affirm that the demand for IT and accounting jobs is here
to stay as most of the Gulf countries look set to introduce value-added tax
(VAT) by next year following its successful implementation in the UAE and
Saudi Arabia in January this year.
Similarly, headcount for IT-related roles is bound to further increase as
more and more organisations are leveraging the opportunity offered by the
Internet of Things (IoT) innovation and blockchain popularity.
Referring to recent Robert Walters Middle East jobs index, analysts are of
the view that there is shortage of lawyers and tax experts in the region as
the adverts for professional positions increased by 25 per cent between the
fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of this year. They said VAT
experienced accountants, CAs, CFAs, economists and legal professionals are
in demand in the region.
According to the latest Monster Employment Index, there has been a two per
cent increase in online hiring within the financial services sector between
fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018. The sector registered a
year-on-year growth of 30 per cent in March 2018.
The IT industry continued to exhibit restrained hiring, charting a 4 per
cent decline between fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018.
However, recent month-on-month hiring is optimistic; the sector registered a
3 per cent growth in February 2018 and a 2 per cent increase in March 2018.
There has been a nine per cent growth in online hiring activity between
March 2017 and 2018. This is unsurprising given the need for companies in
the UAE to hire trained specialists to effectively manage new VAT-related
requirements.
Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO of Monster Gulf, said the UAE businesses are now
required to submit tax returns and they must have to recruit the necessary
talent to meet the new reporting and compliance obligations.
"Of course, this is not only businesses, but we have even seen the UAE
government planning to create a 'tax team' and the Ministry of Finance
announcing 28 tax-related positions," Mukhherjee told Khaleej Times.
Endorsing the similar positive sentiment, Neil Clark, vice-president -
technology division at TASC, said there is demand for key jobs following the
introduction of VAT and ongoing digital transformation in the corporate
sector.
"We have seen an increased demand in technology and IT roles in banking,
airlines, logistics, ecommerce, pharmaceuticals and other industries. With
more and more businesses focusing on digital transformation, this comes as
no surprise," Clark said.
Overall, he said there has been a 12-13 per cent increase in demand for new
jobs, mainly driven by an increase in IT positions. "There continues to be
an increasing demand for expertise in technology functions. Some of the
popular IT roles have been programme and application developers, data
scientists', business intelligence analysts, ERP planners, project managers,
IT security managers, cloud architects, business analytics experts, and
taxation specialists.
"Individuals proficient in SQL/Oracle database, or professionals with
knowledge of the hottest technologies in the market - such as Microsoft
Dynamics CRM, AX - will stand to benefit," he said.
Vikas Panchal, business head at Tally Solutions in the Middle East, said
implementation of VAT has led to creation of more job opportunities in the
market, which would lead to the economic growth of the country.
"In times to come, more and more businesses will realise the importance of
automation and streamline their operations. This would help them bring
discipline and better control, leading to profitability. Rise in automation
would mean need for IT and associated services. Our journey in the UAE has
only just begun," he said.
Divyang Bhandari, director taxation and advisory, ManageMYVAT said the
advent of VAT definitely means that there will be a surge in demand for
specialists in the taxation and IT domains resulting in job creation.
"Specific to IT, support of specialists would be required in the areas of
data capture, data validations, data analytics, MIS, process automation, bug
fixing and product upgrades. Before products are ready for sale, support
would be needed for testing," he said.
In addition, he said resources would be required on an ongoing basis to keep
up with changing regulations and continuous auditing of processes to avoid
penalties. This could result in demand for qualified professionals in the
field of accounting and taxation.
In fourth quarter of 2017, IT sector recorded a two per cent decline over
third quarter 2017 while financial services sector witnessed a 12 per cent
increase. This can be attributed to the challenging economic climate and
fluctuating oil prices in the UAE last year.
"We started to witness a positive change at the tail-end of last year given
the inevitable implementation of VAT at the start of 2018. This was
reflected in the latest MEI which demonstrated strong Q1 2018 results within
the IT and financial services sector," added Mukherjee.
The Monster CEO sees hiring within the financial services and IT sectors
continue to increase. The IT sector is recording a month-on-month growth of
two per cent while the financial services is growing at a slightly slower,
but stable one per cent.
"We would expect this growth momentum to continue as we move further into
2018. As more and more companies, both large and small, begin to take the
necessary steps to become tax compliant, IT departments must evaluate if
enterprise financial platforms currently in place are capable of supporting
VAT requirements, while finance specialists must develop innovative tax
strategies and identify potential tax risks," Mukherjee said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Tax Authority-accredited Zoho Corp says is now
gearing up for the quarterly (tax) filing season. Currently the FTA has six
accredited tax accounting software vendors in the country.
Ali Shabdar, evangelist at Zoho Corp, said that specific to accounting
practices, migrating to cloud-based, VAT-compliant accounting software will
help businesses reduce cumbersome manual data entry as well as errors and
ommissions while automating their business workflows. Moreover, their
sensitive information stays safe, secure, and always available while the
cost and risk of owning and maintaining in-premise hardware and software
reduces considerably.
"As the quarterly (tax) filing season is upon us, we are expecting many SMEs
to file their VAT returns for the very first time. Zoho Books can generate
VAT reports, which are exact replica of the government VAT return format,"
Shabdar said.
The company recently announced the launch of its flagship product Zoho One
in the UAE, which includes more than 40 integrated web applications and an
equal number of mobile apps, all accessed through a single sign-on and
managed with a centralised admin and provisioning panel.
May 21, 2018 |
|
Courtesy Khaleej Times
|
|