Salaries fall sharply in downturn

Cut of 25 per cent in financial sector is cited, but good news for job hunters is that hiring is on the upswing again and living costs are lower.

Job seekers at a recent gathering of Pink Slip Dubai said they were willing to accept lower salaries if it meant getting back to work.

DUBAI // A hard reality is sinking in for those hunting for a job in the country: salaries are not what they used to be. It has taken a year, but those who lost jobs during the property downturn are now adjusting their expectations. And even though hiring is starting to pick up, the era of extravagant compensation packages is over.

Salaries have been trimmed by about 25 per cent in fields such as financial services from a year ago, said Matthew Lewis, the managing director of the Dubai recruiting agency Correlate Search. "People have had a hard time accepting that," Mr Lewis said. Pay levels in the property sector have also fallen. A survey by the recruitment consultancy Kershaw Leonard showed salaries dropped by 30 per cent last summer compared with May last year. Some employees are even working on a commission-only basis.

What Mr Lewis and other recruitment consultants point out is that the cost of living, especially in Dubai, has also dropped. Rents, for example, have declined by as much as 50 per cent. This latest snapshot of salaries emerged at a recent gathering of Pink Slip Dubai, a networking group originally set up in the US to connect recruitment agencies with those who had lost jobs in the technology sector collapse earlier in the decade.

Last week, at a Media City hotel in Dubai, about 50 job hunters came together, swapping strategies and contacts and quizzing recruiters about what skills companies are looking for. Gina Santamaria, 30, a senior analyst in asset management, said she would take a lower salary if it meant she could get back to work. "I want to do something," Ms Santamaria said. "I'm tired of being at home. I want to put my brain to work." In the past five months, she has sent out resumes but heard nothing back.

"They don't even reply to say 'no'," Ms Santamaria said. That may change soon, Mr Lewis said. "There's been a perceptible shift in the last two months about hiring. It's very sector-to-sector and regional, but they're making a play for 2010." Carl Denny, an executive director of Management Solutions International, said firms were making more strategic hires such as chief financial officers skilled in reorganisation and turnarounds, and human resources professionals.

"As a recruiter, my end duty is to the client," Mr Denny said, adding that he "likes the choice" of job applicants now available. In the meantime, some job seekers talked about a routine that now includes monthly visa renewals. One former Dubai World employee, an American expatriate, convinced the company to extend his visa for several months. Now he makes the four-hour run to the Oman border each month.

For Hannah Dwyer, losing her job meant she had a chance to step back and re-evaluate where she wanted to be professionally - something she had no time for during the boom years. "When I lost my job, what I needed to do was make sure that I do want to live in Dubai full-time," Ms Dwyer said. "I travelled, went to the UK, the [United] States, and spent some time there. Once you are there you realise how good Dubai really is."

Just last week, Ms Dwyer found a job at a UK recruitment consultancy with offices here. [e-mail]