Blogs

When Kenya and Saudi Arabia signed a labour cooperation deal covering the welfare of more than 350,000 Kenyan workers, it formalised something the Gulf job market already knew: East Africa has become one of the region's most important talent sources. Nairobi's own government has relaunched its Kazi Majuu initiative, recruiting thousands of construction and transport workers for Gulf placements in...

In Gulf frontline hiring, the salary gets the headline - but the benefits decide the signature. Ask workers why they chose one employer over another at near-identical pay, and the answers are remarkably consistent: the quality of the accommodation, the food, the transport, and whether these arrive as promised. In a tightening regional labour market, benefits have become the real...

Every summer, the Gulf's construction industry performs one of the largest coordinated schedule shifts in the world economy. Midday work bans - typically prohibiting outdoor labour from noon to 3 PM during peak summer months - now cover millions of workers across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. What began as a seasonal safety measure has matured...

Bahrain has never been the Gulf's biggest economy, but it has always been one of its smartest about geography. Sitting between Saudi Arabia's vast consumer market and the sea lanes of the Gulf, the Kingdom has spent years building itself into a logistics hub - a new causeway planned to Saudi Arabia, an expanded Khalifa Bin Salman Port, a growing...