JEDDAH — “KSA continues to trend upward on a robust growth path in November, recording a 9% annual growth in online recruitment. The growth confirms that business optimism remains high in the KSA, also supported by wider positive consumer sentiment across the Middle East,” Monster Employment Index KSA said. Interestingly, most of the growth has been fuelled by growth in the non-oil sector. Once again in November, chemicals, plastic, rubber, paints, fertilizer and pesticides lead all industry sectors by the way of long-term growth and in comparison, retail, trade and logistics sector registered the steepest annual decline. While among occupation groups, purchase, logistics, supply chain professionals experienced the fastest and strongest annual growth”, said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/ Middle East/ South East Asia). According to the Monster Employment Index, 2014 has so far been a decent year for the Middle East in terms of hiring. The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in Saudi Arabia based on a real-time review of tens of thousands of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career Web sites and online job listings. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry. — SG