A new survey by Bayt.com, the number one career site in the Middle East, and YouGov, a pioneer in online market research, entitled ‘Top Cities in the Middle East and North Africa Survey2015’ has revealed that74% of respondents in Amman rank the availability of education as either good or excellent.
Close to half (48%) of people living in Amman say they are either very happy or somewhat happy living in their current city of residence.
Economic Factors
Only12% of people in Amman that the availability of jobs is either good or excellent;23% believe it is average. On a similar note,15% of respondents in Amman believe that competitive salaries are average.
Labor Rights
Respondents from Amman believe that they receive an average amount in end of service benefits, according to28% of respondents. Respondents also believe that they receive an average in terms of termination rights (30%), vacation allowances (33%), parenthood allowances (29%), wage protection system (26%), health insurance and social security systems (27%), and pro-active policy making (29%).
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors form a set of important aspects related to comfort and cleanliness that affect the overall quality of life in a city. A third (33%) of respondents in Amman say that the cleanliness of their city streets is either good or excellent. Other important environmental factors in Amman include clean air (good-to-excellent:43%), clean water (good-to-excellent:42%), and beauty of the architecture and buildings (good-to-excellent:41%).
Standard of Living
According to respondents, key factors affecting the standard of living in Amman include the feeling of stability and security (good-to-excellent:67%), the availability of healthcare facilities (good-to-excellent:52%), a wide range of entertainment avenues (good-to-excellent:62%), and the quality of education (good-to-excellent:59%).
Socio-cultural Factors
The socio-cultural factors are forces within cultures, societies and cities that affect the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals who are a part of them. Important socio-cultural factors in Amman include a stable political environment, rated as good-to-excellent by56% of respondents; equal treatment of both genders, rated as good-to-excellent by44% of respondents; and tolerance to different cultures and ideas, rated as good-to-excellent by49% of respondents.
Other important socio-cultural factors in Jordan include effective law enforcement, fair treatment to all nationalities, and low crime rates.
Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation
In Amman, respondents rank the city’s world heritage sites/preserved old towns (50%), availability of culture and arts offerings (32%), and the availability of outdoor/sports activities (30%) as good or excellent. Additionally,39% of respondents in Amman find the availability of natural areas/landscapes as good or excellent.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship has an impact on a city’s prosperity, and Jordan is experiencing a nascent propensity amongst a small minority of respondents for starting a business.
15% of respondents in Amman rank the ease of starting a new business as good or excellent; however, bureaucracy in procedures and paperwork is prevalent, according to25% of them.25% of Amman respondents rated market willingness to accept new ideas and innovations as good or excellent, while38% said the same about the ability to find local talent to employ.
Suhail Masri, Vice President of Sales, Bayt.com, said: “As the leading career site in the region, it is our responsibility to showcase the best-performing cities in the region, so that job seekers can make an informed assessment if they are looking to move and employers can do more to contribute to their city’s standard of living and wellbeing.”
Masri continued: “The MENA region is very diverse when it comes to the factors that affect the overall quality of living in each city. At Bayt.com, our mission has always been to empower people with the tools and technologies to build their lifestyle of choice, and we want to empower people with valuable insights into life in cities that they might choose to live in.“
Elissavet Vraka, Research Manager, YouGov, said: “It is through this kind of market research that we are able to provide a profile of cities across the Middle East and North Africa today so that both employers and job seekers gain valuable insights into the various factors that affect the standard of living in their city of choice.”
Data for the Bayt.com ‘Top Cities in the Middle East and North Africa Survey2015’ was collected online from August25th to September6th2015, with the participation of3,613 respondents. The survey polled people from varying nationalities including GCC Arabs, North Africans, Levantines, and Western and Asian expats living in major cities in the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Pakistan.