Respondents in Jordan are feeling worse off than last year, according to the latest figures of the Middle East’s number one job site Bayt.com in conjunction with research specialists YouGov Siraj. The study found that in Jordan,41% of respondents feel their financial position is worse than last year.
Overall,35% of the region’s respondents said their financial position was the same, and just over a quarter,27%, said it has gotten better. Among the countries surveyed, personal financial positions improved most in Qatar and Oman, where37% and35% respectively of respondents in each country said they were doing better than last year. Other countries in the Gulf largely varied as to the percentage of respondents who felt their personal financial position had improved:25% of respondents in Kuwait and Bahrain said their financial position was better as did20% in the UAE. In Jordan, just21% of respondents said their financial position had improved since last year.
In addition to financial position, respondents were asked about their level of optimism towards the future. On the whole, respondents are expecting to be in a better financial position next year. Overall,49% of the respondents surveyed believe that their personal financial position will be better next year. By contrast, just7% of the region’s respondents believe that their financial position will become worse.
Most optimistic that their personal financial position will be better a year from now are respondents in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where51% and50% said things would be better, and Oman and Kuwait, where49% in each country said their personal financial position will be better a year from now. In Jordan,41% of respondents believe that their financial position will be better in a year’s time and just10% of respondents in Jordan believe their financial position will get worse.
The respondents also remain largely optimistic that their country’s economy will be better in a year’s time. Overall,38% said that their country’s economy will be better,20% said it will remain the same, and23% said it will become worse. Currently, respondents in Oman, Kuwait and Qatar are the most positive about the expected improvements in their country’s economy, with51%,45% and43%, respectively, stating things will be better. Respondents in Jordan were most pessimistic about their country’s economy a year from now:29% said that it will become worse.
Asked whether it was a good time or not to buy consumer durables, the respondents largely agreed that it was either a bad or neutral time to buy:39% agreed it was a bad time to buy items such as televisions or refrigerators, while34% of the respondents said it was a neutral time.
When asked whether they believe more jobs will be available in a year’s time, respondents were roughly divided:29% said more will be available,27% said the job situation will remain the same and30% said the availability of jobs would be worse. In Jordan,18% of respondents believe the availability of jobs will get better, while35% of respondents believe the availability of jobs will become worse.
In terms of salaries and whether they have kept pace with the cost of living, as in the previous wave, the majority feel that they have not kept pace with the cost of living, with64% agreeing that there is a disparity, while just19% agreed that they have increased in line with the cost of living, and5% said they have increased more than the cost of living.
Data for this survey was collected online between24 May and13 June2010 with6,211 respondents from the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Pakistan. Males and females aged over18 years old, of all nationalities, were included in the survey.