UAE to add more than one million jobs by 2030 – report

The UAE is set to add more than one million new jobs by the end of the decade, with technology roles expected to grow at more than four times the pace of the overall workforce.

According to the Workforce Skills Forecast 2025, released by enterprise software firm ServiceNow in collaboration with Pearson, projects that the UAE will need to add 1.03 million workers by 2030, representing a 12.1 per cent increase in its human workforce. This places the country among the fastest growing labour markets globally, ahead of major economies including the United States, the United Kingdom and India.

The report attributes the expansion primarily to economic growth and rising demand for skills linked to digital transformation.

Manufacturing, education and retail are expected to be the largest contributors to job creation with an estimated 133,000, 78,000 and 60,000 new roles respectively. Finance and healthcare are also forecast to add more than 40,000 and 39,000 jobs.

Measured by relative growth rather than absolute numbers, the energy and utilities sector is expected to expand most sharply at 33 per cent, followed by education at 31 per cent and manufacturing at 18 per cent.

Despite advances in artificial intelligence, the report finds that efficiency gains from automation will not offset demand for human labour. In financial services, for example, agentic AI could perform work equivalent to around 17,000 full-time employees or 6.6 per cent of the current workforce.

Tech sector leads UAE hiring wave

However, the sector is still projected to see a 26 per cent increase in jobs driven by growth and demand for technology enablement.

“What we are seeing in the UAE is that AI will be a critical enabler of the next phase of economic growth, not a replacement for people,” said William O’Neill, area vice president and general manager for the GCC at ServiceNow. “Organisations that succeed will be those that redesign roles and invest in upskilling alongside AI adoption.”

The pressure on skills is expected to be most acute in technology roles while the overall workforce is forecast to grow by just over 12 per cent, demand for technology professionals is expected to rise by 54 per cent.

Tech roles currently account for around 169,000 of the UAE’s estimated 8.5 million jobs. By 2030, employers are projected to require more than 91,000 additional technology specialists.

Among the fastest growing roles are search marketing strategists, with an estimated 5,600 new positions, followed by computer programmers at 4,200 and computer systems analysts at 2,700.