Considered commentary on hiring, talent, and the moves that matter across our practice areas. Written for candidates navigating senior decisions and leaders building teams that last.
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Spending on AI infrastructure is at a record, yet employers across the Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia are hiring narrowly. Security, finance and control roles are holding up best as the year closes.
Singapore's fintech funding fell to its lowest level in years, while Hong Kong issued its first stablecoin licenses and loosened its talent rules. Both cities are competing for the same compliance, payments and AI specialists.
German employers advertised 40% fewer HR roles this spring than a year earlier, and HR leaders expect AI to remove a third of their own headcount by 2030. Regulation and works councils will shape how fast that happens.
AI is pulling marketing budgets toward performance, commerce media and data skills, while agencies restructure around automation. UAE employers are hiring for a narrower set of roles that prove what spending returned.
In the US, fewer sellers are hitting quota and entry-level sales roles are giving way to AI. In the Gulf, commercial hiring slowed first. Both markets are converging on the same kind of seller.
Saudi Arabia has paused payments to consultants and scaled back its giga-projects, while the UAE has ordered AI into half of government operations. Transformation in the Gulf is not ending, but the people it needs are changing.
Gulf spending on AI infrastructure is growing faster than almost anywhere else, while technology hiring narrows to the roles that build, run and protect it. The scarce skills are resilience engineering and AI at enterprise scale.
Spending is up and the tools are multiplying. The harder question of who closes the gap between a vulnerability found and a vulnerability fixed is shaping hiring on both sides of the world.
The UAE's financial sector entered a more demanding quarter with record business behind it. The test is whether institutions can convert deposits and mandates into returns while borrower conditions tighten.
First-quarter demand beat the forecasts. Margins, collections and client budgets tell a more complicated story about where legal hiring goes next in the US and Canada.