Recruiters confirm hold on hiring workers

JOBS  Companies across the UAE, especially in Dubai are holding back on hiring as they ride out a global economic crisis that is putting the brakes on a regional property boom, recruitment executives have said.

“We have seen a propensity among employers to delay recruitment,” said Rabea Ataya, chief executive at Bayt.com, a recruitment website.
“Everyone is adopting a wait-and-see attituder. The economy here is so closely intertwined that when any part of the economy experiences a hiccup, others will want to wait and see how long it will affect them.”

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Recruiters said employers cannot afford to take risks as multinational firms freeze hiring globally and local companies stand by to watch how the fallout of the global financial turmoil will play out in the region.

As a result, major developers in the UAE are putting projects on hold and are actually cutting back on staff. In a statement issued in November, Emaar Properties said; “Emaar will pursue a recruitment strategy which will be suited to the market conditions and in line with the best interests of the company in the long term.”

Meanwhile, rival developer Nakheel said “The next few months will see a scaling back of activity around some of our projects”. However, the famous company added that it didn’t affect any of its long-term plans.

Despite this, there is still a shortage of properly trained drivers, operators and skilled welders, which is being made worse in Dubai by a ‘one family, one villa’ policy, effectively pricing these middle-income trades out of the market.