Alarm raised over Gulf financial job losses

* username: rupertbu

It has been a torrid 12 months for white-collar employment in the Gulf – and for the agencies who act as intermediaries in hiring senior executives.

In February, GulfTalent, a recruitment agency, said that Dubai lost 17 per cent of its professional workforce last year and reported that western foreign nationals had been hit the hardest.

Nakheel, the property developer at the centre of the restructuring proposals for Dubai World, its parent, has gone from employing up to 4,000 people to fewer than 1,000, according to headhunters.