The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is very diverse when it comes to factors that affect the overall quality of living in each city as well as the opportunities for career growth and success. As you search for a new job opportunity, you may be wondering what are the best cities to live and work in? Which cities offer the most competitive salaries and the most favorable economic conditions? Where do entrepreneurs and businesses feel welcomed the most? Where do individuals feel safe and supported? Which cities are the most suitable for family living and entertainment? There are many factors to consider before taking on a new job offer and moving to a new city.
The Bayt.com Top Cities in the Middle East Survey, November 2016, ranks the most desirable cities for people to both work and live in based on respondents’ most valued attributes. As a leading career site in the MENA region, Bayt.com aims to provide job seekers with holistic information to make an informed decision if they are, for instance, looking to relocate to any of these cities for work. Simultaneously, when employers know where their city stands, they can do more to contribute to their city’s standard of living by addressing the needs that job seekers are looking for the most.
Here are some of the Survey highlights:
1. Job availability and competitive salaries
The most important economic factors that professionals across the MENA look for are job availability and salary levels. Indeed, job seekers are drawn to cities where they have a higher chance of being employed. In this aspect, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Manama emerged as the top cities. Similarly, competitive salary packages that keep up with the cost of living are taken into high consideration when evaluating a city of residence. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Eastern province came on top for salary competitiveness.
2. Labor rights
Factors such as vacation allowances, termination rights, wage protection, and health insurance are all influential when it comes to rating a job opportunity and a city of residence. When it comes to termination rights, Muscat scored the highest. Dubai takes the top spot in terms of vacation allowances with just over half of respondents stating so (59%). This is followed by Eastern province (54%) and Abu Dhabi (53%). Abu Dhabi emerge as the best city in terms of health insurance and social security with about three quarters giving it a positive rating (73%).
3. Environmental factors
Respondents also value the cleanliness of their city’s roads, air, and water, the climate as well as the traffic. Abu Dhabi is rated highest in terms of clean streets and roads with a vast majority stating so (90%); Dubai (86%) and Muscat (84%) follow. In terms of comfortable weather, Marrakech emerges best (65%) followed by Muscat (53%) and Beirut (both 48%). Muscat is rated the top city when it comes to clean air as stated by 77% of its residents; Dubai and Abu Dhabi follow (68% and 61%, respectively).
4. Standards of living
Education, healthcare, and infrastructure highly impact the standard of living in each city across the MENA. In terms of availability of educational institutions, Eastern province is the leading city (84%) followed by Abu Dhabi (74%) and Amman (72%). When it comes to availability of health care facilities, Dubai is the best city (85%) followed by Abu Dhabi (78%) and Eastern province (66%). Dubai and Abu Dhabi are also the top two cities in terms of quality of accessible public transportation system (82% and 68%, respectively).
5. Socio-cultural factors
These factors are the forces within cultures, societies, and cities that affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the individuals who are part of them. Abu Dhabi takes the top spot in terms of freedom of expression (63%) followed by Tunis (53%), Dubai (51%) and Muscat (41%). When it comes to fair treatment to all nationalities, Abu Dhabi emerges as the best city (76%). In terms of low crime rates, Abu Dhabi scores high (87%) followed by Dubai (84%).
6. Entrepreneurship factors
Financial elements were the most important entrepreneurship factors for MENA respondents, with affordability of taxes and fees (60%), ease of starting up a new business (59%), and ease of finding finances to start a business (59%) as the most important of them. Dubai and Abu Dhabi again received the highest scores in this aspect.
With overall scores combined, Dubai and Abu Dhabi ranked the highest. Dubai and Abu Dhabi also scored extremely well on the happiness scale, with more than three quarters of their residents indicating that they are happy in their city of residence.
