The Dubai Statistics Centre’s latest report has revealed that the unemployment rate in the emirate is the lowest in the world with 0.5% recorded for last year.
The survey also showed the percentage of the total working-age population reached 83.2%, one of the highest rates in economic participation.
The survey used the sample of 1,500 Emirati households and 1,500 non-Emirati households distributed across various Dubai communities.
Non-Emiratis
The unemployment rate remained below 0.5% between 2016 and 2018 with male non-Emiratis having an unemployment rate of 0.2% and females 1%. Arif Al Mehairi, Executive Director of Dubai Statistics Centre has attributed such low rates to the constructive policies, which grant residency visas to employees, investors, students and persons of equivalent status with the condition that persons of working-age will not be allowed to stay in the UAE without a job. The refined rates of economic participation of working-age non-Emiratis residing in Dubai rose to 85.5 per cent in 2018.
Emiratis
The unemployment rate increased by over 1% point between 2016 and 2018, rising from 2.9% in 2016 to 3.4% in 2017, and 4% in 2018. The unemployment rate of Emirati males increased by 0.7 percentage points between 2016 and 2018, rising from 2% in 2016 to 2.6% in 2017, and 2.7% in 2018 while that of Emirati females increased by double percentage compared to Emirati males. Such a rate is attributed to the fact that Emirati females prefer to work in the government sector and in certain jobs and professions.
The survey results show that half of the Emiratis of working-age are involved actively in economic activities. Emirati males had a higher economic participation rate of 62.6% while the corresponding figure for Emirati females was 36.5%.
Employed Emiratis
According to the survey, 2,242,363 people were employed in the emirate last year out of which 81.3% were males while 18.7% were females. The number of Emiratis employed and residing in Dubai went up by the end of 2018 to 82,630 compared to 75,856 by the end of 2016, which marks an increase of 6,774 employed Emiratis over the past three years, and an increase of employed Emiratis by 8.9% in 2018 compared to 2016.
Unemployed
The total number of unemployed persons living in Dubai was 10,468 in 2018. Figures show that the number of unemployed increased by 2,893 from 2016 to 2018.