Abu Dhabi job market

How many jobs are open in Abu Dhabi, how many are new, which fields and employers are hiring and which skills they want. Counted daily from employer career pages and job boards.

Browse jobs in Abu Dhabi

Jobs open now

3,773

New jobs, last 30 days

3,762

Hiring trend vs the previous 30 days: +38%

Jobs closed, last 30 days

4,078

Filled, expired or taken down by the employer

Typical time a job stays open

23 days

Median, from posting to closing, 2,325 closed jobs

JobXDubai Hiring Index

New job postings each week from a fixed group of employers, against the four weeks from 3 August 2026 (= 100). The group never changes, so the index only moves when those employers hire more or less, never because we add a source.

Latest complete week

121

-8 points on four weeks before

100
3 Aug10 Aug17 Aug24 Aug31 Aug7 Sept14 Sept21 Sept28 Sept5 Oct12 Oct19 Oct
FieldIndexOn four weeks before
Hospitality & Tourism90-9
Engineering & Technology64-90

New and closed jobs, week by week

Complete weeks only, for employers we were already tracking at the start, so a new source never looks like a hiring spike.

3 Aug
10 Aug
17 Aug
24 Aug
31 Aug
7 Sept
14 Sept
21 Sept
28 Sept
5 Oct
12 Oct
19 Oct
New jobs Closed jobs

Which fields are hiring

New jobs in the last 30 days, and the like-for-like change against the 30 days before.

Employers stepping up, and slowing down

New jobs in the last 30 days compared with the 30 days before, for employers we have tracked throughout. Recruitment agencies and job boards are left out.

Posting more

  • Parsons41 143
  • ADNOC89 173
  • AECOM62 128
  • M4220 75
  • Etihad Airways32 79

Posting less

  • Rotana Hotels85 37
  • KBR, Inc.27 5
  • Aldar Properties15 4
  • First Abu Dhabi Bank64 53
  • TALENTMATE16 7

Skills employers ask for

The skills named most often in new adverts over the last 30 days. General soft skills are left out.

  1. 1Risk management255
  2. 2Project management217
  3. 3Change management200
  4. 4Excel181
  5. 5Regulatory compliance152
  6. 6Quality assurance140
  7. 7Contract management123
  8. 8AutoCAD122
  9. 9Procurement122
  10. 10Civil Engineering120
  11. 11Contract administration120
  12. 12HSE compliance116
  13. 13Project coordination112
  14. 14Inventory management111
  15. 15Data analysis105

Rising fastest

Like-for-like change vs the previous 30 days, on at least 30 adverts.

  • Civil Engineering+169%
  • Change management+153%
  • HSE compliance+141%
  • Data analysis+119%
  • Quality control+103%
  • Procurement+103%
  • Contract administration+91%
  • Quality assurance+80%
  • Inventory management+77%
  • Budget management+77%

What employers ask for, and what CVs show

For each field: the skills named most in new adverts, and how often CVs uploaded to JobXDubai mention them (5,375 anonymous CVs). A CV mentions far more skills than an advert lists, so compare down each column, not across.

Engineering & Technology

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Project management6%16%
Change management5%10%
Git5%31%
Jira5%24%
CI/CD5%25%
Incident management5%6%

401 adverts, 1,543 CVs

Finance & Accounting

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Financial reporting26%64%
Excel26%83%
Accounts payable24%44%
Accounts receivable24%33%
General ledger17%35%
Financial analysis16%27%

144 adverts, 538 CVs

Sales & Business Development

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Business development25%58%
Customer relationship management14%15%
Client relationship management12%15%
Presentation11%16%
Contract negotiation10%8%
Relationship management10%40%

199 adverts, 532 CVs

Construction & Engineering

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Risk management17%25%
Civil Engineering13%43%
Change management13%18%
Project management12%41%
AutoCAD12%58%
Quality assurance9%16%

928 adverts, 409 CVs

Hospitality & Tourism

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Guest service15%27%
Food preparation12%10%
Food safety11%32%
Inventory management9%17%
Safety compliance8%11%
Food and beverage service7%10%

545 adverts, 326 CVs

Marketing & Communications

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Budget management22%13%
Digital marketing22%72%
Brand management19%12%
Social media management19%13%
Project management14%20%
Campaign management13%17%

64 adverts, 220 CVs

Human Resources

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Employee relations31%62%
Performance management30%45%
Onboarding23%86%
Excel21%55%
Workforce planning20%46%
HR operations18%64%

71 adverts, 176 CVs

Operations & Logistics

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Inventory management13%35%
Excel11%65%
Data analysis10%10%
Vendor management10%22%
Contract management8%9%
Regulatory compliance7%6%

241 adverts, 144 CVs

Healthcare & Medical

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Clinical documentation13%37%
Patient education13%25%
Medication administration12%21%
Infection control11%41%
Regulatory compliance10%14%
Vital signs monitoring10%9%

223 adverts, 101 CVs

Design & Creative

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Adobe Illustrator35%37%
Adobe Photoshop35%53%
Adobe InDesign31%19%
Motion graphics31%31%
Graphic design29%44%
Adobe After Effects21%25%

48 adverts, 68 CVs

Education & Training

SkillIn advertsIn CVs
Classroom management43%39%
Curriculum planning29%12%
Lesson planning15%48%
Differentiated instruction14%45%
Behaviour management8%5%
Curriculum development8%21%

155 adverts, 66 CVs

What employers require

From the requirements in 3,773 open adverts. The typical ask is the median.

47%

ask for a degree

5

years of experience, typical ask

1%

ask for a driving licence

1%

require Arabic

FieldYears askedDegreeCredentials asked for most
Construction & Engineering869%NEBOSH IGC
Energy & Sustainability1065%
Hospitality & Tourism229%
Engineering & Technology629%
Healthcare & Medical327%DOH licence, MBBS or equivalent, BLS
Education & Training235%PGCE or other teacher qualification
Sales & Business Development328%
Operations & Logistics538%
Finance & Accounting550%
Legal & Compliance543%
Executive & Management738%
Marketing & Communications638%
Administrative559%

Advertised pay, as employers state it

Only adverts where the employer published a salary (165 open jobs). Typical (median) monthly range, in AED, for fields with at least 30 such adverts.

FieldTypical advertised rangeAdverts
Construction & EngineeringAED 25.5k to 36.5k a month48

Adverts that state pay lean towards some employers and roles, so this is what advertised jobs offer, not what everyone earns.

What open jobs pay: our estimate

Most Gulf adverts don't state a salary, so these bands use our own estimate for each open job (the employer's figure when they give one). Individual estimates can be well off, so read this as the shape of the market, not a salary guide.

Open jobs by estimated monthly pay

  • Under AED 5k4%
  • AED 5k to 10k13%
  • AED 10k to 20k53%
  • AED 20k to 35k12%
  • AED 35k and above19%

Estimate. 3,750 of 3,773 open jobs have a pay figure.

Adverts that state the pay

4%

Of jobs open now, the share where the employer published a salary. This one is a count, not an estimate.

Who the jobs are for

New jobs open to entry-level and junior candidates

20%

Last 30 days. The 30 days before: 15% (up 5 points).

New jobs reserved for GCC nationals

6%

Adverts that say the role is for Emirati, Saudi or other GCC nationals only. Last 30 days.

  • Administrative22%
  • Healthcare & Medical11%
  • Finance & Accounting10%
  • Human Resources10%
  • Legal & Compliance10%

How long jobs stay open, by field

Median days from posting to closing, for jobs closed in the last 90 days.

  • Executive & Management17 days
  • Operations & Logistics17 days
  • Energy & Sustainability18 days
  • Engineering & Technology20 days
  • Construction & Engineering22 days
  • Sales & Business Development26 days
  • Hospitality & Tourism26 days
  • Healthcare & Medical26 days
  • Finance & Accounting27 days
  • Education & Training35 days
  • Administrative36 days

Most active employers

By new jobs posted in the last 30 days.

Use this data

Journalists, researchers and bloggers are welcome to quote, embed and chart these numbers. Please credit JobXDubai with a link to this page.

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JobXDubai, "Abu Dhabi job market pulse", data as of 28 October 2026. https://jobxdubai.com/job-market/abu-dhabi
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Source: <a href="https://jobxdubai.com/job-market/abu-dhabi">JobXDubai Abu Dhabi job market pulse</a> (data as of 28 October 2026)

Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit "JobXDubai" with a link to jobxdubai.com/job-market/abu-dhabi.

How we count

  • Jobs open now are live listings on JobXDubai: collected daily from employer career pages and job boards, checked for dead links, with duplicates removed.
  • A new job is a listing we first saw within 14 days of its posting date, so an employer's backlog of old adverts never counts as fresh hiring.
  • Trends compare like with like: only employers we were already tracking in that country before the period began. When we add a new source, its jobs count as open jobs but not as growth.
  • We only show a percentage change on a big enough base: at least 300 new jobs in the earlier period (30 for a single field or skill, 15 for an employer). Below that, small numbers swing too much to mean anything.
  • Pay bands are estimates. Most adverts don't state pay, so we estimate it per job. The share of adverts stating pay is an exact count.
  • The Hiring Index counts new postings each week from a fixed group of employers we already tracked before its base period, against the average of its four base weeks (= 100). A field gets its own index once it averaged at least 30 new jobs a week in the base period.
  • Requirements come from the requirements written in each open advert (years, degrees, licences, credentials, languages). Spellings of the same credential are merged.
  • Advertised pay uses only salaries the employer published, never our estimates, and only where at least 30 adverts in a field state one.
  • CV figures come from CVs uploaded to JobXDubai, including free CV checks, stored as anonymous statistics: the skills a CV mentions and a likely field. We never keep or publish the CVs themselves.
  • Time open runs from posting to closing. It leaves out jobs from feeds where we retire adverts ourselves after a fixed age, which would otherwise make every field look the same.
  • Tracking began UAE: July 2026, Oman: July 2026, Saudi Arabia: July 2026. Updated 28 October 2026.

Job market by role: hiring data for the 100 most common jobs, from accountants to sous chefs. Who is hiring: every employer with 10 or more open jobs.