Get ready for a pay hike in UAE this year - even if it's just 5%

For all those, waiting anxiously, with fingers crossed, and hoping to see their hard work translated into a heftier pay cheque, can heave a sigh of relief. If a recent job survey is anything to go by, then there’s money luck awaiting employees this year.

According to the GulfTalent.com research ‘Employment and Salary Trends in the Gulf’, UAE salaries are expected to rise by an average of 5.1 per cent in 2012.

Last year, the income was raised by 4.9 per cent, compared to inflation at 0.9 per cent, with HR professionals receiving the highest pay rises, and marketing the lowest. Among the sectors, healthcare and retail offered the highest pay rises, while real estate had the lowest.

The survey enlisted that Saudi Arabia enjoyed the highest rate of job creation in the region, with firms increasing their headcount from 55 per cent in 2010 to 62 per cent in 2011, emphasising its strong economic growth and massive government investment. Bahrain logged the lowest.

Over the same period, the UAE listed a 15 per cent jump (to 37 per cent) in the number of firms creating new jobs. It echoed how Dubai’s regional recruitment has picked up after the two-year economic meltdown.

Dubai has strengthened its position as the most attractive city on Gulf expat job market, with Qatar and Saudi Arabia following closely behind.

The survey detailed that the largest headcount expansion will be focused on Oil & Gas, Healthcare and retail sectors, with the worst prospect for banking and construction industries.

Across the GCC, the average private sector salary upswing has remained stable but is much lower than pre-recession levels. Oman saw the highest salary increase in 2011 (6.5 per cent), prompted in part by widespread strikes by Omani nationals and a pay hike awarded by the government to public sector employees. Saudi Arabia and Qatar saw increases of 6 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively on the back of strong economic developments. The UAE experienced an average increase of 4.9 per cent, while Bahrain recorded the region’s lowest salary increase of 4.5 per cent.

However, the real salary ascent, marked by average pay rise net of inflation, was highest in the UAE and Bahrain, with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait clocking the lowest salary increases.

Sever political tensions impacted Bahrain, with only 8 per cent of firms reporting creation of any news jobs last year, registering a dip from 23 per cent in 2010. Even its popularity received a setback with Bahrain, dropping from the fourth position to become the Gulf’s least attractive destination for expats in 2011.

The report highlighted how the global economic unrest has shown an increase in the Western expat work force, with Gulf employers finding it easier to hire Western nationals than Asian candidates. Some findings, however, disputed this claim, with few employers reporting difficulty in attracting Western candidates because of their perception that the region is unsafe following widespread media coverage of the Arab Spring.

The online survey was conducted based on 35,000 professionals, aged between 22 to 60 years and earning annual incomes in the range of $12,000 to $200,000, and 2,100 employers based across the Gulf. Sixty executives and HR managers in the GCC, across all industries, were also interviewed, and it also depended heavily on the press and macro-economic sources.

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