What Lies Ahead for Jobseekers in the UAE

The job scenario in the UAE has been affected by the recent turmoil pertaining to events like the Dubai World imbroglio and the effects of the US recession. The UAE has been feeling its effects since the last one and a half year. The housing and construction sector has been the most hit, followed by the impact on the financial sector. Many people lost their jobs since there was a reduction in economic activity and the future looked very uncertain. Some companies even relocated to other parts of the UAE, while others opted out of the UAE altogether. With all this movement, the job prospects have also been invariably affected.

In contrast, if we were to look at the previous six years or so, the UAE and especially Dubai was a hot bed of activity. There was an appetite to construct as many buildings as possible, whether for homes, apartments, shops, hotels, malls or any other places of gathering and entertainment. You could hear the sound of work going on at any time of the night or day. Now however there is an uneasy silence most of the time. The credit crunch means that cash flows have been affected, and in turn so have the housing and construction projects. New projects have been facing difficulty getting off the ground, while old projects have either changed hands in terms of management, construction teams or both. One healthy estimate was that at much as 60 percent of the previously held back projects have resumed, although many have had to extend their completion deadlines. As the economy slowly picks up again, we see that there has been renewed interest in job websites Dubai. In fact in view of the bad press that Dubai has been getting lately, many of the returning or new workers prefer to look at all of the UAE job websites, rather than just restrict themselves to job sites Dubai. The fact is that due to the past happenings of the last two years or so, it is less likely that one would choose job opportunities Dubai compared to other job opportunities in UAE. For those who have been touched by the previous downturn, job openings Dubai is least likely to attract them. They would rather take their chances in any other part of the UAE. And this is well advised, for there are better opportunities in the other emirates now that some Dubai based businesses have relocated there.