Bayt.com slashes rates

The site, which has seen a 200% increase in business over the last year, announced that the rates for employers to post jobs on Bayt.com will be lowered starting February 1.

The cuts come at a time when the cost of living in the Gulf, and the price of doing business here, is on a sharp upward curve. That the company should buck this trend in such dramatic fashion represents a remarkably bold, characteristically innovative and somewhat counter-intuitive move, given the jobsite's consistently strong performance in the market.

"If airlines were to cut their fares by 40%, you'd expect to see a lot more people flying," said Bayt.com CEO Rabea Ataya, explaining the reductions. "We expect the price cuts on Bayt.com to have a similar stimulating effect on the employment market. This is a shot in the arm for the regional economies and a real effort on our part to exercise our social responsibility as one of the region's leading corporate citizens."

"The boundaries between state planning and corporate responsibility initiative are blending the world over and we are delighted to exercise our firm leadership positioning in the region to stimulate regional employment and aid jobseekers and employers alike," he added.

Ataya pointed out that a recent survey conducted by Bayt.com showed that 63% of employers sourced professional candidates online. "The Internet now plays a central role in every company's recruitment process," he said, "and Bayt.com has long been a leading player and technological pioneer in this area. We are the region's number one job site and the first job site to offer a fully bi-lingual on-line platform coupled with a physical network of offices that stretches from the GCC to North Africa. It follows, then, that Bayt.com is in a position to make a positive contribution to the market, and that is what these cuts are intended to do."

Bayt.com currently serves 1.8 million registered jobseekers and 26,000 employers, with over 2,500 new jobseekers registering every day from across the globe. Ataya said that offering affordable packages to employers will allow the company to give something back both to its jobseekers and its clients, many of whom are reeling under the increased cost of doing business in the region. "With presence and profitability comes responsibility. These cuts will be a good thing for us, a good thing for our jobseekers and clients alike and a good thing for the overall economy," he said.

Under the new pricing structure, the charge for job postings on Bayt.com will be lowered a full 40% discount on current prices. These on-line postings remain active for a minimum of 30 days, have no limitations on size or amount of detail provided, and can be accessed by both the site's 1.8 million registered users as well as the unregistered users that contribute to the over 50,000 visitors the site enjoys every day. Established clients and newly registered employers alike will benefit from the reduced prices pan-regionally from February 1.