The recession is still taking its toll on Jordan’s employees, according to the latest figures of the Middle East’s number one job site Bayt.com, in conjunction with research specialists YouGov Siraj, which reveal that42% of respondents in Jordan consider themselves to be in a worse financial position than last year. According to the survey, just one fifth of respondents consider themselves to be in a better financial position than the previous year, while32% said that their financial position is the same.
The respondents were asked questions about their personal financial circumstances and how they feel they are doing – either better or worse – compared to the previous year. Among the respondents in the UAE, just20% said they are better off than last year, while40% of the UAE’s respondents said they feel they are worse off than the last year, the second highest figure behind Jordan.
Of the countries surveyed, respondents in Oman and Egypt reported the largest improvements in their financial positions, with34% and33% stating their personal finances have improved since the last year. As for the other countries around the GCC, respondents in general do not feel that their financial position has changed for the better:27% of respondents in KSA said that their financial position was better, followed by26% in Qatar and23% in Bahrain. In Kuwait, just one fifth of respondents feel they are in a better financial position compared to last year.
In addition to financial position, the respondents were asked about their level of optimism towards the future. Asked how they expect their personal financial position to be a year from now, the respondents were largely optimistic that things would change for the better. Overall across the region,47% of respondents said that their personal financial position will be better, and as in the previous wave, just8% of the region’s respondents expected their personal financial position to be worse. Jordan was below the regional average in terms of optimism:37% of respondents said that things will be better a year from now. Most optimistic among those surveyed were respondents in Oman and Saudi Arabia –57% and52% respectively said their personal finances will be better next year.
In addition to anticipated improvements in their personal financial position, respondents remain optimistic that their country’s economy will be better in a year’s time.40% said that their country’s economy will be better, compared to just19% of those who said it would become worse. Currently, respondents in Oman, Qatar and Algeria are the most positive about the expected improvements in their country’s economy, with55%,53% and51% respectively stating things will be better. In Jordan,31% expect things to be better in their country’s economy in a year’s time, while26% said they believe things will become worse.
When asked about future availability of jobs, respondents were roughly divided:29% believe that there will be more jobs available in a year’s time, while an equal29% disagreed. Respondents in Qatar and Oman were feeling most positive about the future availability of work; with43% and41% believing things will be better in a year. At the other end of the spectrum, those feeling most pessimistic about the future availability of work were respondents in Bahrain and Jordan:40% and35% respectively said job availability would be worse after a year.
Salary, vis-à-vis cost of living, continues to be an issue among the respondents:63% said salaries haven’t kept pace with the cost of living, an increase of three percentage points from the previous wave. However,18% of respondents agreed that salaries have increased in line with the cost of living. Respondents in Jordan exceeded the regional average, with69% agreeing that salaries have not kept pace with the cost of living.
Data for this survey was collected online between1 and21 December2009 with17,021 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.