156 thousand citizens work in the private sector and 14% growth in its establishments

Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Awar, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Acting Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chairman of the Supervisory Committee of the “Emirates Award for Leadership in the Labor Market”, confirmed that the Emirati workforce recorded a growth of more than 11% during the past year, and the proportion of the skilled labor category increased by more than 13%, including more than 156,000 male and female citizens working in the private sector until the end of October 2025, indicating that private sector establishments witnessed a growth of more than 14%. This reflects the high confidence of business owners and investors.

This came during his speech at a ceremony honoring the winners of the third session of the Emirates Award for Leadership in the Labor Market, which was held today at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), where he said that today’s celebration of pioneering practices in the labor market contributes to achieving the vision of our wise leadership to build a competitive knowledge economy, develop the business environment, and shape the features of the future economy so that the UAE is among the most developed economies in the world and achieves high performance rates.

He said: “All these successes were achieved thanks to the vision of our wise leadership in making the UAE labor market ranked first in many global competitiveness indicators, which makes us proud and motivates us at the same time as we try to achieve more achievements in cooperation with the private sector and its workers with national and international competence.”

During the ceremony, the winners of the Emirates Award for Leadership in the Labor Market were announced. The third session witnessed the reception of more than 18,000 nominations to participate, an increase estimated at about 134% compared to the number of nominations for the award in its second session, which amounted to about 7,700 applications. This reflects the growing importance of the award, its reliability among companies and individuals, and its pivotal role in enhancing companies’ interest and commitment to the award’s leadership requirements and developing their operational models and compliance with legislation.