Dubai: Hiring activity in most countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is still slowing down, but the number of job opportunities in the UAE is starting to rise, an online employment tracker said on Tuesday.

The latest Monster Employment Index (MEI), which monitors thousands of job listings posted by companies in the Middle East, showed that vacancies on offer in the UAE went up by 10 per cent in June 2016, when compared to the same period last year. Similarly, job offerings increased in Bahrain and Oman by 10 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

“We expect this positive trend to continue, especially in the UAE which is seen by economists as the most promising economy in the Middle East and North Africa,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director at Monster.com for Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Overall hiring activity in the GCC region, however, is still treading on negative territory, with employment listings in Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait significantly down by 30 per cent, 25 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively.

When poor performing job markets are taken into account, recruitment levels across the region posted a negative 21 per cent annual growh in June 2016, the lowest this year.

"Clearly, employers are adopting a much more cautious and risk-averse approach to hiring," said Modi.

Other analysts have said that the labour market in the UAE has been challenging for jobseekers, given that fewer companies are offering jobs. The Morgan McKinley UAE Employment Monitor had earlier reported that the number of jobs on offer in the country dropped by 9 per cent, from 7,899 slots in the last quarter of 2015 to 7,212 in the first quarter of 2016.

However, Modi said the UAE’s employment outlook is now looking better than most of its peers in the Gulf because certain industries remain resilient to economic headwinds and low oil prices. One of these industries is healthcare, which continues to post positive job demand.

According to the Monster index, listed vacancies in the healthcare sector increased by 46 per cent in June 2016 as compared to the same period last year.

Second on the list of top performing industries is the retail/trade and logistics, posting a 32 per cent growth in job offerings.

The third best performer is the consumer goods, food, home appliance, garments/textiles/leather, gems and jewellery category, posting 29 per cent growth in listings.