TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the Hiring Issues of the Craft Workers in the UAE’s Construction Labor Market
T2 - Project Managers Perspective
AU - Albattah, Mohammed
AU - Shibeika, Amna
AU - Sami Ur Rehman, Muhammad
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research received funding from the United Arab Emirates University as part of a Start-Up Research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - The construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with negative project performance, including low productivity, higher costs, delays in project completion, and defects during construction. One of the main reasons for these issues is the engagement of unskilled craft workers. Despite these labor issues, demand for construction projects in the UAE has been explosively increasing, in part due to Dubai winning the hosting of Expo 2020, which has given rise to an unprecedented demand for skilled construction craft workers. This study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of construction project managers regarding the reasons and challenges associated with the hiring of skilled craft workers in the construction labor market of the UAE. To fulfill the study purpose, the authors conducted structured open-ended interviews with UAE construction project managers. The results revealed several reasons for hiring craft workers despite a clear lack of qualifications and suggest some potential solutions.
AB - The construction industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is faced with negative project performance, including low productivity, higher costs, delays in project completion, and defects during construction. One of the main reasons for these issues is the engagement of unskilled craft workers. Despite these labor issues, demand for construction projects in the UAE has been explosively increasing, in part due to Dubai winning the hosting of Expo 2020, which has given rise to an unprecedented demand for skilled construction craft workers. This study aimed to investigate the views and experiences of construction project managers regarding the reasons and challenges associated with the hiring of skilled craft workers in the construction labor market of the UAE. To fulfill the study purpose, the authors conducted structured open-ended interviews with UAE construction project managers. The results revealed several reasons for hiring craft workers despite a clear lack of qualifications and suggest some potential solutions.
KW - Construction labor market
KW - Construction productivity
KW - Construction projects
KW - Craft workers
KW - Hiring
KW - Skilled workforce
KW - Skills
KW - UAE
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U2 - 10.3390/buildings12010026
DO - 10.3390/buildings12010026
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122266417
SN - 2075-5309
VL - 12
JO - Buildings
JF - Buildings
IS - 1
M1 - 26
ER -