Dubai losing its professional workforce

This may come as a surprise to those who live outside the area or who still believe the 'bouncing back, everything's fine and the property market is recovering' stories.  But, to quote Basil Fawlty, this article is 'stating the bleeding obvious' to anyone else. 
Source: ArabianBusiness.com 23 February 2010
Photo: I took it on a Nikon D40
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Dubai lost 17 percent of its professional workforce in 2009, with Western foreign nationals hit the hardest, according to recruitment agency GulfTalent.
The Gulf Arab emirate, famous for its artificial, palm-shaped islands and glitzy lifestyle, has been rocked by a debt crisis that came on the heels of a property downturn.
"One of the biggest developments of 2009 has been a change in the fortunes of Dubai, from the fastest-growing hub in the region, sucking in much of the expatriate talent, to the city experiencing the region's most severe downturn," online recruiter GulfTalent said.
"Across the region, redundancies appear to have disproportionately hit senior executives and western nationals."
Despite Dubai's woes, the UAE remained the most attractive market in the region for expatriate professionals, with 74 percent of people surveyed by GulfTalent saying they wished to stay there.
As a whole, the country's professional workforce fell 16 percent, the survey showed. Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Bahraini capital Manama followed, shedding 14.4 percent and 12.8 percent of their workforces.
Salary growth also slowed in the region, with the average pay increase at 6.2 percent compared with 11.4 percent in 2008. GulfTalent saw little change in 2010, predicting growth of 6.3 percent.
In 2009, the UAE's average pay rise was 5.5 percent, down from 13.6 percent the previous year. In contrast, Oman saw an 8.4 percent rise, while Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia posted 7 percent increases.
The GulfTalent report was based on an online survey of 24,000 professional employees at the region's 3,000 largest corporations as well as a poll of 900 human resources managers and other interviews and reviews.

Nakheel cuts 400 more jobs

From The National 8 July 09
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Nakheel, a property developer owned by Dubai World, has made about 400 more staff redundant as the company continues an overhaul brought on by the downturn in the property sector.
The redundancies were staggered over the past two weeks and are on top of the 500 jobs that were cut last December, a source close to the company said.
"We were given a redundancy package of six months' pay" one former staff member who was laid off last week said.
The economic downturn has battered nearly every Dubai developer, with property prices and sales falling sharply. Developers, who were mostly reliant on off-plan sales to finance the construction of their projects, have struggled to collect payments, leading to rising defaults, while payments to suppliers have been delayed.
Nakheel yesterday confirmed the redundancies as the company continues to readjust its current business objectives to match supply and demand in the most effective way, but declined to say how many jobs have been cut.
Nakheel recently merged a number of its business units, which are now undergoing resource restructuring to ensure efficiency and optimisation of skill and talent, the company said.
The source said the bulk of the cutbacks affected the company’s asset management and design (NAMAD) division, a unit that was formed only in February after the the design group and universe master planning divisions were merged. The source said Imdaad, a facilities management (FM) firm also owned by Dubai World, would now manage most of the infrastructure and facilities across Nakheel's projects.
But Nakheel denied this, saying: NAMAD's facilities management team is functioning as usual. Imdaad has been providing FM services to Nakheel as a service provider in various communities following the usual practices of engaging a service provider.
The redundancies come after at least five years of expansion, during which Nakheel took on staff for large salaries in order to resource its ambitious projects, which include the Palm island trilogy, The World and Waterfront.
It was a time when all Dubai developers scrambled to attract staff, with poaching being the norm and salaries being high.
A junior level staff member, for example, could earn about Dh80,000 (US$21,780) a month with a company such as Nakheel, according to Simon Hobart, the managing director of the recruitment firm Millennium Solutions.
Everyone was earning big money in the first six to eight months of last year, with the problems associated with that now being enormous, Mr Hobart said. Nakheel was paying people too much, it all went a bit mad. Some of these guys were only 24 or 25 years old. Today, they’d get a third of what they were on.
While there is no official figure on how many jobs have been lost in the property sector since the downturn hit, estimates suggest thousands have been made redundant across associated sectors, including construction.
Thousands of redundancies have also been made in the financial sector. The job cuts could have a longer-term impact on the property market because of a dwindling local population. However, developers owned by the Dubai Government are working to streamline operations and, through integration and mergers, reduce further risks.
Dubai World said last month the property activities of its subsidiaries, Leisurecorp, Dubai Maritime City and Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, would now be managed by Nakheel, also owned by Dubai World. Emaar Properties is also in advanced merger talks with Dubai Properties, Sama Dubai and Tatweer, companies owned by Dubai Holding.