GCC firms intend to start recruiting again - survey

RECRUITMENT DRIVE: GCC company bosses said they intend to recruit over the next year. (Getty Images)

Some 53 percent of GCC company bosses, who took part in a recent survey, said they were intending to hire more staff in the next 12 months.

Only 13 percent of respondents said they were going to cut staff numbers, while 34 percent said their recruitment freeze would continue, but they would not be making anyone redundant in the meantime.

More than 600 managing directors, CEOs and general managers took part in the Doing Business in the Gulf survey.

“Tough times are upon us, but the majority of the companies surveyed – around 67% - expect their operations to yield increased profits in the next 12 months,” said Lucy Mountain, project director of Leaders in Dubai, a business forum taking place in Dubai in October.

“With better than expected performance during the downturn, business leaders are counting on increased profits to help ease the impact of the crisis by providing more employment opportunities.”

Some 13 million expatriate employees are believed to be currently working in the GCC, Leaders in Dubai said.

The exact number of redundancies in the GCC is unknown. Thousands of mainly western expatriates are believed to have left the UAE alone this summer.

Earlier this month, Vayalar Ravi, minister for overseas Indian affairs, said delays in construction projects had forced between 50,000 to 150,000 people to return home on unpaid leave.

He added that job cuts in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar had taken place.

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