Burj Dubai, Worlds Tallest Building

Giant Dubai developer Emaar Properties said on Monday it plans to hire 1,600 new employees despite being hard hit by the financial crisis and as thousands are losing their jobs in the emirate.

Emaar, which suffered a net loss of more than 481 million dollars in the last quarter of 2008, said it was looking to complete the recruiting process within three months, WAM state news agency reported.

It said that the new staff are needed for its retail, hospitality and entertainment divisions.

Chairman Mohammed Alabbar said that the company’s strategy aims to boost the performance of its subsidiaries in waiting for the recovery in the real estate sector, which was heavily hit by the global financial crisis, WAM reported.

Emaar’s decision bucks a trend of layoffs which saw thousands of workers, mainly in the emirate’s once-thriving construction sector, reportedly lose their jobs as finance dried up and investor confidence evaporated.

The company which is building the world’s tallest tower, Burj Dubai, still made a profit in 2008, blaming its heavy losses in the final quarter on huge US writedowns and goodwill impairment of around 735 million dollars.

Its full year profits plunged by more than half to 831.7 million dollars, compared with 1.79 billion dollars in 2007. The stock price of Emaar, the largest listed property developer in the Middle East, crashed 85 percent last year.

Source: AFP

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