Dubai turns page on Covid-19 with hottest jobs market in two years

What may have been the steepest population decline in the Gulf region is giving way to the hottest jobs market Dubai has seen since China detected its first coronavirus case in December 2019.

A turnaround in employment took hold this summer and spread as looser travel restrictions revived business. But while headcounts are swelling with freshly recruited cooks and cabin crew, the economy of the Middle East’s commercial center is facing a fraught path to normalcy.

“We’re bringing people back but managing that carefully along with how we see occupancy moving,” Mark Kirby, chief operating officer of Emaar Hospitality Group,