Many companies in the United Arab Emirates are planning to create new jobs over the coming months, a new report has revealed.

A poll by Naukrigulf carried out a year ago found that only 50 per cent of businesses in the GCC region were planning to step up recruitment during the second half of 2010.

However, the latest survey has revealed that 76 per cent of respondents intend to create additional jobs between July and December 2011.

Tarun Aggarwal, spokesman for Naukrigulf, said many of these positions will be in the engineering and IT industries, while recruitment activity also looks set to grow in the retail, telecoms and energy sectors.

"The various initiatives by the respective governments as well as rising oil prices have led to creation of new jobs and newer job opportunities," he commented.

This comes after a poll by YouGov Siraj and Bayt.com found that nearly half of people in the United Arab Emirates expect the state of their finances to improve over the coming year.