Amidst the apparent growing economic gloom felt across the Middle East in terms of dropping consumer confidence, job seekers in Jordan are optimistic for the future with33% of respondents believing business conditions- and28% believing the country’s economy- will improve in the next year; according to recent figures shown by the Middle East’s number one job site - Bayt.com in conjunction with research specialists YouGov.
When asked about their personal financial situation, and whether they feel that they are better, or worse off than the last12 months, a quarter of all survey respondents in Jordan stated they felt better off than last year, indicating that the gloomy financial environment isn’t negatively affecting everyone in the country. Overall, on a regional level, a quarter of respondents felt they were better off;34% felt they were worse off, and35% felt their financial position hadn’t changed.
Personal finances improved most significantly in Algeria, Qatar and KSA, with31%,29% and28% saying their financial position had picked up. Syria’s respondents were the most affected in terms of personal finances, with almost half,48%, stating that the situation with their personal finances had deteriorated.
There is some light however at the end of the tunnel according to the survey’s respondents, with28% believing that their country’s economy would be better in a year’s time, while20% believe it will stay the same. In Jordan,28% of respondents believed things would get better within their country’s economy.
The respondents were also optimistic when asked whether or not they felt their personal financial position and that of their family would be better in a year’s time.38% believed things would improve, while just12% felt their finances would worsen. Most optimistic in terms of an imminent improvement were Tunisia’s respondents, with55% agreeing things would get better. In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia’s respondents were found to be the most optimistic, with46% anticipating an improvement. In Jordan, respondents were largely optimistic for the future, with36% saying things would be better, just13% stating things would be worse and17% believing the status quo would prevail.
When asked about consumer spending, just19% of respondents stated that they believe now is a good time to buy durable goods, with46% deeming it a bad period. Lebanon was the most positive about the current environment for spending money with24% believing it was a good time to buy. This was closely followed by Tunisia and Algeria both at23% citing conditions conducive to spending. A fifth of Jordan’s respondents believed it was a good time to buy.
The survey’s respondents revealed that they feel salary increases haven’t kept pace with the cost of living, with an overwhelming64% saying that increases are not in line. Jordan matched the average with64% of people feeling the inadequacy of their salary raise, while only15% said it had increased similarly to the cost of living.
Optimism across the region has waned in terms of job availability in a year’s time the survey showed; with41% of respondents believing work availability would be worse. A roughly equal split occurred in terms of people believing job availability would remain the same (23%), and availability would improve (21%). Most optimistic about the future availability of jobs at30% was Tunisia, while conversely in North Africa, Egypt’s respondents were most pessimistic with just16% stating the situation would be better. Almost a quarter,24%, of respondents in Jordan said employment will be better in a year’s time, while38% believe it will become worse. In the Gulf, Kuwait and the UAE shared the same pessimism about jobs being available in the future, with49% agreeing the situation would be worse. The figures suggest that the majority of residents are feeling the effects of the ongoing credit crunch, but a proportion believe that things will soon look up.
Data for this survey was collected online between the period of2nd February and2nd March2009 with8,686 respondents from across 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.