Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 Football World Cup has provided the momentum for the market to “go boom”, according to Steve Tallant at technical recruiter CBSbutler.

Tallant, regional manager for the Middle East, told Recruiter that Qatar currently holds an annual project value across all sectors of around $4bn (£2.5bn), just half of the UAE or Saudi Arabia (roughly $8bn each) but this figure looks set to increase to around $16-17bn by next year.

“Over the next 10 years you’re looking at $100bn worth of projects, mainly in construction and infrastructure. That’s $10-$15bn a year, and that’s the reason we [CBSbutler] have put ourselves here,” he added.

Although oil & gas is still the country’s top recruitment sector, Tallant predicts that in the coming years the main focus will shift to engineering where there will be recruitment opportunities “across the board”, from technical engineering roles to project managers, to back office and finance.

He said that recruitment in the IT sector would also be moving forward in Qatar in the next few years, as the companies who start building projects there will require IT engineers to support them.

“Recruitment in the Middle East dropped down massively two years ago,” he explained. “Within six months it had gone from doing very well to almost coming to a grinding halt, but it’s picking up again now quite significantly.

“The big changes are going to be coming next year, and [they] are a lot to do with Qatar winning the world cup and the infrastructure that needs to be built to support that win.”