10 January2019: As the New Year gets underway, a recent Career Aspirations study by Bayt.com – the Middle East’s #1 Job Site – and YouGov – global online market research company – has revealed that professionals in the region are encouragingly optimistic about their career outlooks for2019. In Lebanon specifically, two thirds of respondents have a positive outlook for the new year. Only13% have a negative outlook, while the remaining21% are neutral.
No Limits for Career Ambitions
In Lebanon,55% reported setting future professional goals for themselves, which included finding a new job (49%), getting a higher salary (48%) and learning new skills (41%).
With career development in mind,61% of Lebanon respondents believed they deserve to work in a higher-level position, and42% were willing to move to another department or area of expertise to develop their skillsets and further their professional careers.
36% of respondents stated they were willing to move into a different industry altogether to broaden their professional expertise.
What Drives the ‘Ideal Job’
The top three factors that were seen as “important in an ideal job” for Lebanon residents were salary (73%) and opportunities of career growth (45%) followed by work-life balance (29%).
Interestingly, respondents are more likely to prefer being an employee (45%) in comparison to owning their own business (31%).
The reported reasons for seeking employment in the region are marked by the desire to “consistently learn and gain experience” as indicated by63% of respondents, the goal to “make money” (64%) and to feel “useful to society” (46%).
Motivation levels at work
As for motivation levels in the workplace,65% reported feeling motivated at work. Only14% reported lacking motivation while21% responded neutrally.
Though respondents revealed a positive indication of their motivation in the workplace,74% of respondents reported that higher salaries and improved perks and benefits would help to increase their motivation. For39% of respondents better work-life balance and more focus on training and learning new skills would further increase their motivation at work.
“It is wonderful to observe that the majority of respondents to Bayt.com’s Career Aspirations study emitted such a positive sentiment for the2019 working year. This encouraging outlook will reflect positively on the region’s hiring activity and the individual career progression,” said Suhail Msari, VP of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com. “At Bayt.com, we work with over40,000 employers across the MENA region and they rely on our technologies and data to master their talent management practices. Based on this study, it is crucial to acknowledge employee aspirations and satisfaction as we start a new calendar year and as we work to enhance the hiring and job seeking processes even more.”
Future Personal Ambitions
Overwhelmingly, the top personal goal for2019 was reported to be saving more money, according to69% of Lebanon respondents. Other prominent goals included more travel (47%), buying property (30%) and exercising more (26%).
Less than a fifth of respondents (12%) chose retirement before50, indicating a desire to stay in the workforce for a longer period.
“The Career Aspirations study aims to better understand the challenges and aspirations of MENA professionals. It covers aspects such as perceptions and attitudes towards current job, career aspirations, barriers to career growth, overall work environment and personal aspirations and concerns,” said Kerry McLaren, Head of Omnibus MENA at YouGov.
Data for the2018 Bayt.com ‘Career Aspirations’ study was collect online from November22 to December25,2018. The results were based on a sample3128 respondents. Countries that participated are the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and others.