Doha and Dubai top list of world’s most competitive job markets

If you’re in the market for a new job, you’ll find the most competition in the Middle East and California’s tech hubs.

Doha, Dubai and San Francisco are among the places that had the highest number of candidates per LinkedIn job posting in February, according to a study from online resume builder Resume.io. To create its ranking, the company looked at 130 global cities and every US state and tracked how many applications were submitted to roles in the first week after they were advertised.

Qatar’s dominance on the list is likely related to hosting the World Cup last year. Since 2010, the country has spent more than $250 billion as part of the preparations — constructing almost 100 new hotels, expanding its port and airport and revamping its roads, among other things.

Though the tournament brought the country’s labour practices into focus, leading to widespread criticism over its treatment of migrant workers, Qatar is still a magnet for job seekers. The average job post there racked up 399 applicants in February, the Resume.io study shows. Qatar created a universal minimum wage in the midst of the World Cup worker furor and it doesn’t tax personal income, making it a relatively lucrative place to work.

Workers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which are also among the most competitive job markets, don’t pay income tax, either. Some positions driving the post-pandemic job market in the United Arab Emirates include specialised medical roles and freelance digital content work, according to LinkedIn data.

The highest-ranked cities in the US are both in northern California. San Jose, known as the heart of Silicon Valley, had 108 applicants per LinkedIn job posting in February, while San Francisco had 92 applicants, Resume.io said. Both locations count relatively high average salaries but are also among the most expensive places to live in the world.

More recently, widespread layoffs across major companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google resulted in a talent pool oversaturated with tech employees that have nowhere to go, as industrywide hiring freezes thin the frequency of open job listings.

Other major US cities were competitive, though didn’t crack the global top 10. New York, still struggling to match pre-pandemic job offerings, had a little more than 80 applicants per listing and Chicago, had about 50 per LinkedIn post, according to the Resume.io data.

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