Gulf Hiring Slows for the First Time in Four Years, While AI Roles Keep Growing

The latest quarterly Gulf hiring index carries a two-sided message for the job market: the wider slowdown companies saw did not touch AI and data roles, which remained among the few segments that kept growing through the general pause.

What changed: The Cooper Fitch Gulf hiring index for the second quarter of 2026 showed the first contraction in UAE private-sector hiring in more than four years, down 4% from the first quarter, the sharpest since August 2020. Across the GCC as a whole, hiring fell 3%, with Qatar down 6%, Kuwait down 4%, and Bahrain down 2%, while Saudi Arabia and Oman each posted slight growth of 1%. The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, rising costs, and continued uncertainty pushed companies, according to the index, to take interviews to the final stage and then hold off on the final decision.

What it means for you: The slowdown did not hit every role equally. Data and AI roles were among the rare segments that kept growing, up 4% over the same quarter, while general software roles fell 6% and cloud-computing roles fell 4%. A clear signal if you are job-hunting in tech: the generic title “software developer” is no longer enough on its own to draw interest, while a documented ability to work with real data and AI tools gives you a clear competitive edge even in a market that is slowing overall.

Who is affected: Job seekers and employers in the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait in particular, plus any tech candidate relying on a generic title without a clear specialisation in data or AI. Saudi Arabia and Oman remain the positive exception in the index this quarter.

The practical takeaway: Review your CV now and add one documented project, with a link, that shows your real use of data or AI tools, even a small personal project, because the candidate who shows exactly that is the one who clears the bottleneck in interviews that stall at the final stage.

Source: enterpriseam.com