The UAE is set to see a massive global influx of white-collar talent from the US, Canada, UK, and parts of Europe over the next few years as companies push for the relocation of senior and mid-level professionals, experts told Arabian Business.
This incoming wave of talent, especially Indian professionals, is being seen as an indication of the Gulf country’s rising status as a hub for global wealth and talent.
Companies in many sectors, especially technology and finance, are increasingly looking to set up or relocate their backend operations to the UAE amidst the country’s fast rise as a regional hub for many services and a global hub in a few segments, triggering more demand for experienced talents, industry insiders told Arabian Business.
The anticipated surge in white-collar talent flow to the UAE is also expected to catapult Abu Dhabi as a major commercial hub as many corporate majors are also increasingly looking at setting up operations in the capital city because of Dubai’s limitations in accommodating further massive developments.
The anticipated influx in white collar talents from Western markets to the UAE follows the repeated rounds of employee reductions announced by a host of global companies in many sectors in recent months and years, impacting tens of thousands of employees across roles and levels.
“We expect the movement of at least 15,000 to 20,000 white collar talents over the next three years to the UAE, either through migration or relocation, across levels and roles,” Mahesh Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director, Core Integra, an India-based globally operating HR company, which is expanding to the UAE in a big way following mandates from companies for hiring and employee relocation to the Gulf country.
“Initially the talent inflow would include mostly Indian-origin talents, but soon we expect to see movement of talents irrespective of nationalities to the UAE as companies, especially multinational companies, prefer a multicultural workplace atmosphere,” he said.
While Core Integra has already been mandated by three companies – one Indian multinational company operating globally to relocate some of the Indian employees to the UAE and two UAE-based companies for hiring from the Western markets – a few other international and Dubai-based HR firms are also understood to have got similar mandates.
Silicon Valley’s loss is Dubai’s gain
Senior executives at a few other hiring firms also confirmed the move on large-scale talent inflow into the UAE.
“Job markets for executives in major Western markets, including the UK, the US and some developed European countries, have been facing some challenges, with a notable decline in permanent staff appointments across various sectors,” Amarjeet Dutta, Managing Partner – UAE and Emerging Markets, EMA Partners, a leading global leadership advisory firm, told Arabian Business.
“UAE has been at the helm of attracting top-tier talent over the years and this slowdown situation in the Western world has acted as a catalyst to this cause,” he said.
Dutta said apart from the non-taxable salaries and other benefits in the region, rise of sovereign wealth funds/investment platforms has created a “hungry ecosystem” to incubate large-scale unprecedented projects and investments across various portfolios, which has also led to a surge of high-quality talent demand in sync with this rising ecosystem.
He said as of early 2024, the demand for permanent staff, particularly in the private sector, in many of the Western markets has continued to fall, contributing to an overall decrease in executive job opportunities.
“While multinational companies still have mobility options within their firms to foster succession to explore high potential talent to the Middle East, other industries will see this slow down for the next few months due to lack of lucrative options,” Dutta said, indicating that this could lead to white collar talents trying to migrate to countries like the UAE in large numbers in the coming months and years.
Krishnamoorthy, who is currently busy sourcing senior to mid-level talents for some of the UAE-based companies, said: “It will be a classic case of Silicon Valley’s loss will be Dubai’s gain”.
Tech, financial sector to see large-scale migration
Industry experts said though the anticipated influx in white-collar talent migration and relocation will happen across sectors, technology and financial sectors are expected to see maximum inflow.
This is because Dubai has already emerged as a hub for many bespoke tech solutions, services and products in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region because of its advantage of having availability of top and relatively cheaper talents, and is also fast rising as a global hub for some of the select services and roles.
“Our joint market study with the Dubai chapters of the Indian Institute of Chartered Accounts and Indian Institute of Cost and Works Accountants projected an annual requirement of 1,000-1,500 senior-level financial sector professionals – senior banking executives, CA and MBAs in the UAE,” Krishnamoorthy said.
He said in the tech sector, there is a need for tens of thousands of talents for just ‘tech solutions’ or ‘customised solutions’ – different from programmers and coders – over the next few years because of Dubai’s emerging regional hub status in these segments.
Relocation to UAE hubs
Industry insiders also spoke of several international companies, especially in the tech, financial and marketing sectors, looking to set up or relocating their backend operations to the UAE as part of their on-going cost reduction initiatives.
The move also follows corporate biggies anticipate cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the next global growth centres.
“International companies in the financial sector are taking the lead on this front, with some of them already setting up their backend centres and few others are currently in the process of doing it or deciding on it,” a senior executive with a multinational bank, who wished not to be quoted, told Arabian Business.
Krishnamoorthy said global economic uncertainties and emergence of new tech tools such as AI, ML, etc are forcing multinational companies to revisit their business plans and restructure operational and employee-related issues which could see many of them moving some of their functions such as backend operations and mid-to-low end product/solutions developments to relatively low-cost areas.
“The UAE, especially Dubai and Abu Dhabi, stand to benefit in a big way from this churn, because of their advantages in terms of advanced infrastructure development, availability of a talent pool and relatively cheaper costs, coupled with the brighter economic growth outlook projected for the UAE and the region,” he said.
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