(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai's non-oil sectors achieved growth in January that led to first increase in employment for almost a year, thanks to the rollout of the vaccine that helped improved optimism among private sector firms.

It was the second consecutive month of increase in business activity in the emirate, that led to an uplift in employment at the quickest rate for 14 months, IHS Markit said following its January survey on Tuesday.

The monthly Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of Dubai by IHS Markit showed that Dubai stayed above the 50.0 growth threshold for the second consecutive month in January, despite falling to 50.6 from 51.0 in December.

The PMI survey covers Dubai's non-oil private sector economy, with additional data published for travel and tourism, wholesale and retail and construction.

Growth was recorded across most of the monitored sectors at the start of the year, with travel and tourism the only category to see a decline in business conditions due to a tightening of global travel restrictions. Wholesale and retail was the best-performing segment in January and the main driver of job creation.

Oxford Economics has said that there are reasons to be optimistic about rebound in Dubai tourism when local and global economic recovery take hold.

'Vaccine roll-out in Dubai should boost traveller confidence, political developments such as rapprochement with Qatar and the Abraham Accords could attract visitors and Expo 2021 and the Fifa World Cup in 2022 will provide extra boosts, it added.

According to the IHS Markit survey, Dubai private sector output was ramped up mostly to support ongoing projects, but some firms did mention an increase in client demand.

David Owen, Economist at IHS Markit, said confidence for 2021 is improving due to the rapid vaccine roll-out in the UAE, employment rose for the first time in nearly a year, after the pandemic drove record declines during the second quarter of 2020.

The Dubai-based businesses saw an improvement in suppliers' delivery times for the second month in a row, despite some concerns linked to global supply chains. Panellists noted that vendors were able to make faster deliveries as transport capacity improved.

Firms also expressed greater confidence towards the future business climate, linked to the rapid domestic roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines.

Optimism was the highest since last September but remained at one of the weakest levels seen in the series history, particularly as travel & tourism firms gave a neutral outlook for 2021.

Meanwhile, PMI data signalled weakness on the demand side in January, with sales growth softening to a fractional pace and the slowest seen in the current eight-month sequence of expansion.

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