The UAE's private sector created 40,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2019, as the labour market showed growth amid a tepid global economic backdrop, according to the UAE Central Bank.
The job numbers excluded employment across the UAE's free zones.
The total number of workers employed by the private sector across the emirates stood at 5.1 million at the end of the second quarter, compared with 5.06 million in the first quarter. New jobs added to the labour force last year in contrast stood around 137,000 according to the human resources and emiratisation ministry.
Last month, the UAE's central bank revised its growth forecast for the economy upward to 2.4 per cent for 2019, from an earlier projection of 2 per cent in May this year. The economy grew by 2.2 per cent in the second quarter, with non-oil growth expanding 1.5 per cent, compared to an official estimate of non-oil growth of 0.3 per cent in the first quarter by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority.
Economic activity since the beginning of the year added 1 per cent to private sector employment in the second quarter compared with 0.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
The rise in employment was due to an upsurge in real estate as well as sectors including agriculture, mining, hotels, restaurants, brokerage, education and health, the report added.
The real estate sector, which along with construction employs 45.7 per cent of the UAE's workforce grew by around 5 per cent in the second quarter of 2019, compared with 4.4 per cent in the previous quarter. The other sectors showed growth of 8.2 per cent for the second quarter, compared with 4.9 per cent in the previous.
