Despite the illegal siege, the world continues to knock on Qatar’s doors for jobs

For several decades now, Qatar has been one of the region’s most prolific providers of jobs for people from around the world.

A number of recruitment agencies have now confirmed what is already known — despite the illegal siege, Qatar remains a major draw for job-seekers, according to Qatar Tribune.

Despite the siege, it is understood that the country attracted at least 30% more applications in the second half of the year compared to the first.

“The unjust blockade has failed to make any impact on recruitment business and this is reflected in the number of applications we receive every month,” Global Manpower Services General Manager Badr El Sheikh told Qatar Tribune.

The agency receives 50 to 70 online applications a day on an average, most of them are for white-collar jobs. 

“The Qatari job market is well-known around the world for its tax-free salaries and therefore generates a lot of interest from the Western expatriates,” he noted. 

Although firms in certain sectors have slowed fresh intakes, it has not dampened the general optimism among job-seekers on Qatar. 

“Going by the number of job applications we get, I can assure you that Qatar is definitely on the job-seekers' radars.”

A recent survey Bayt.com and YouGov showed that 65% of all employers in Qatar plan to hire in a year's time. Also, the private-sector continues to have the highest hiring intentions, with 69% of large local companies, 69% of other private sector companies and 68% of multinational companies saying they will be ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ hiring in a year’s time.

Since June, Golden Manpower, another recruitment agency, has been receiving more than 80 job applications a day against the daily average of 60 in the first six months of the year.