Salary levels of expatriates working in property and construction sectors have fallen by 30 percent during the past 8 months across the GCC, according to data by APG Global, an Australian-based recruitment agency.
The decline follows a four-year hiring boom, when the companies used to pay above-market hiring rates to hire staff to fill positions for construction projects.
Following the staff redundancies observed in the two sectors, the employers are now making the most out of the pool of applications they receive for fewer positions. For instance, a Development Director was earlier offered a salary of Dh.70,000 is now offered a salary only in the range of Dh.50,000 to Dh.55,000. Similarly, a Project Manager or an Engineer earning up to Dh.55,000 per month last September, can now only earn about Dh.45,000.
The Associate Director-Operations of APG Global, Joanne Robertson, has warned companies from making any further deductions, as they may not have enough staff once the market re-bounds.
Robertson has also advised companies against reducing salaries below market rates, and to maintain the levels in line with the appropriate salaries.
The companies are willing to pay beyond the prevailing market rates in order to get the right people, as there was lack of people. However, they end up losing staff when the market rebounds, and the cost of hiring new personnel would far outweigh the cost of giving them a reasonable salary in the first place, he said.
According to Matthew Taylor, the International Director at the UK-based recruitment firm, the recent redundancies in the property sector has left several employees more willing to make sacrifices with their salary. Also, benefits such as cost of relocation, car allowances and accommodation also needs to be re-worked.
APG Global has a vacancy of 80 to 100 positions, compared to 650 during last September, while the number of applications being received for each vacancy has growth to 22 from 7.
Most of the hiring is happening in Qatar and Saudi Arabia that are less affected by the downturn. Posted on 22/5/2009
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