UAE created 660,000 jobs in just six months (??!!)

From Emirates Business 24/7 dated 7 May '09
The statements contained in this article give an opposite view to current perceived reality in Dubai. There are no facts given to show where and in which sector/s these jobs have been created.
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The UAE economy has created in excess of 660,000 jobs in just six months and this shows the global financial turbulence has had little impact on the country's labour market, the Acting Director of the Ministry of Labour said yesterday.

Humaid bin Dimas said about 405,000 jobs had also been cancelled between October and March, far lower than the new jobs created in the same period.

"When we talk about the global crisis and whether if it has affected the labour market in the UAE and other GCC countries, I say yes because we are part of the global economy and Dubai and the UAE are part of the global system," Dimas told the Qatari Aljazeera satellite TV channel.

"This is natural that we are affected by this crisis but I can tell you the impact is limited... our figures show that more than 662,000 new jobs have been created in the UAE between October and March while around 405,000 jobs have been cancelled in the same period... this means there is an increase in jobs by an average 43,000 per month during this six-month period."

Dimas said the impact of the global crisis on the UAE job market was more psychological than physical, noting that many employers had frozen new recruitments although they have sufficient liquidity.

"This has not been confined to the UAE or the other Gulf states... it is a global practice in such conditions because of the psychological factor," he said.

"But let me ask this question: how can we talk about a real crisis in the UAE labour market at a time when it generated more than 662,000 new jobs?"

Dimas's figures showed there had been around 297,000 job cancellations in the six-month period before October 2008.

"This means we are talking about an average 50,000 job cancellations per month during that period compared with nearly 67,000 during the six-month period after October... this is not a big difference, so where is the crisis... I think this is natural because the UAE labour market is a market of 'job entry and job exit'."

According to a recent survey conducted by Emirates Business, the UAE has emerged as the largest job generator in the GCC, accounting for almost 50 per cent of the total new jobs.

The UAE is the second largest economy in the GCC and the Arab World after Saudi Arabia, with its gross domestic product peaking at Dh929.4 billion in 2008. It also has the second highest per capita income of Dh170,000 after Qatar.