Global survey finds return to stability in UAE job markets

As a result job prospects for professionals and managers in the UAE have now almost caught up with the global average.

 

The 'Global Snapshot' from the international recruitment firm, Antal, asked 7397 companies in major markets such as western and eastern Europe, Africa, India, China and the USA whether they were currently hiring at professional and managerial level.

 

It then asked whether they planned to do so in the coming quarter and whether they were currently letting staff go or were planning to do so in the next three months.

 

Current hiring across the globe was up from 46% of respondents in April to 50% now. And the percentage of organisations intending to hire in the coming quarter was up from 44% to 48%. At the same time the percentage of organisations intending to shed staff had fallen from 35% in the spring to 25% now.

 

In the UAE 49% of businesses expected to recruit in the coming quarter. Only 30% were in the process of reducing headcount and this was expected to drop to 22% over the next three months.

 

Elsewhere in the region the employment situation was a variable one. In the UAE 46% of businesses were currently recruiting and in Saudi Arabia 51%.

 

'After a substantial dip in hiring levels in April, confidence now seems to be returning to the UAE job market,' says Nizar Lalani, Country Manager - Dubai.

 

'We would be very brave, or possibly very foolhardy, to assert that the economic crisis that has assailed the world is over, but there is little doubt that the results of this edition of Global Snapshot give cause for some optimism. The hiring and firing of staff is one of the most effective measures of business confidence and there is no denying that, with a few exceptions, the jobs market for professionals and managers is improving all around the world,'

 

says Antal's international CEO, Tony Goodwin,

 

'Of course there may still be unforeseen troubles waiting around the corner - the W-shaped recession or the 'dead cat bounce', for example, so beloved by the more apocalyptic commentators. But what may save us even if they are lying in ambush is an underlying sense of confidence that appears to be returning for the first time in nearly two long and difficult years,' he added.