Hishem AzzouzHost Of Recruitment Mentors Podcast

The Truth About Hiring in the Gulf Region

Name: The Truth About Hiring in the Gulf Region
Uploaded: 2026-03-13T15:01:58+00:00
Duration: 1 min
Channel: Hishem Azzouz
Description: Recruiting veteran Hishem Azzouz says Gulf hiring has flipped: relocations dropped from 80% to under 10% of placements. Companies now want regional…

13 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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1:00

Recruiting veteran Hishem Azzouz says Gulf hiring has flipped: relocations dropped from 80% to under 10% of placements. Companies now want regional experience over outside experts. Saudi Arabia's strict local-hiring rules mean most jobs go to nationals, signaling a maturing market.

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So when I first started recruiting in, in the Gulf, we, we relocated 80% of the talent. Now, as a business, we probably relocate less than 10%. Okay, really? So yeah, yeah. So the bulk of businesses want people on the ground. The bulk of companies, they want regional— they, they only want regional experience. So that's why it's, it's, it's become very hard for businesses to open up doors, like coming in fresh, because they go, I can bring experts from around the world, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that works in certain niches, but most businesses now, they really just want people that understand the region. And that's a sign of the Gulf market maturing. Also, the big opportunity in Saudi, like it used to be that people thought that they could get a job in Saudi and that will be their retirement fund sorted. Saudi's got really strict laws around hiring local. So most of the briefs that we get in Saudi are to find Saudis.