Layoffs are cooling down in Dubai

Since the beginning of March  Dubai Chronicle counted fewer layoffs announced at the U.A.E. based companies, a far cry from the 500 to 3000 in previous months. Perhaps it’s time for some cautious optimism.

Companies are still unloading hundreds of employees. Many of the layoffs already announced won’t be completed until months from now, as in the case of back office consolidation of Dubai Holding’s property and investment companies. In other cases companies are hiring in some areas, as Abraaj ACapital, while they trim jobs in others. But it’s not easy to feel optimistic if your company is one that has announced impending cuts. Shuaa Capital  eliminated 21 jobs in December 2008 and another dozen last week, employees can’t help but worry when will come their turn.

The numbers show many companies got layoffs out of the way when the time was right. Most do annual bookkeeping at year’s end, and this year, that forced them to realize they had to take immediate action. A lot of bad-news quarterly results were accompanied by layoff announcements.

The actual job market will likely be gloomy for some time, but the decline in the layoff announcements right now can only be good news. It suggests that, at the very least, job losses may significantly decrease over the coming months. They may pick up again in the summer, but we can’t really see that far ahead.