The 2026 target against your own skilled headcount — what is due now, what is due by December, and the gap between them. Free, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Nothing here leaves your browser. There is no server to send it to.
Skilled roles only, not total headcount. Both the fifty-employee threshold and the target percentage are counted on this number.
The count MOHRE recognises, which is not always the count on your own payroll report.
Put in your skilled headcount and how many of those roles are held by Emiratis.
Companies with 50 or more skilled staff are working to a 10% Emiratisation target by 31 December 2026. · August 2026 · MOHRE / Nafis
Stated, dated and sourced — this is the one pack on the site that has been through review.
Companies with 50 or more skilled staff are working to a 10% Emiratisation target by 31 December 2026.
MOHRE / Nafis · last verified August 2026
Who does the target apply to?
Companies with fifty or more skilled employees. Both the threshold and the percentage are counted on skilled roles, so a large company with few skilled posts can sit outside it while a much smaller one sits inside.
How fast does it rise?
Two percentage points a year, landed in one-point steps at the end of each half — which is why this shows two checkpoints rather than one annual figure. Missing the June step is not cured by meeting the December one.
What counts as a skilled role?
MOHRE's own classification rather than an internal job grade. It turns on the occupational category, the qualification the role requires and the salary — and reclassifying roles to move the denominator is precisely the thing being audited.
What happens if the target is missed?
Monthly contributions for each unmet post, escalating year on year, and restrictions on new work permits. We do not print the amounts: the sources disagreed when we last checked, and a wrong figure on a page like this would be worse than no figure at all.
More on the rest of it on the UAE compliance page.
Dawmo keeps the skilled-role count and the Emirati count on the same employment record the rest of HR runs on, so the target is a figure you watch through the year rather than one you assemble in December.