For Americans, Dubai is the new London.
That’s the main finding of a new survey that shows the UAE trumping the UK as the most popular place for Americans to relocate for work.
A research company took a simple look at searches and found “Jobs in Dubai” has been the most popular search term since January 2013 – when it pushed “Jobs in London” off the top spot.
Still, Dubai has been rising up the rankings for the world’s most expensive cities in which to live. It was ranked as the 67th most expensive city in which to live in 2014, but has this year been ranked as the world’s 23rd most expensive, according to research from the consultancy Mercer.
But this was unlikely to have dented Dubai’s competitiveness compared to London, which was the 12th most expensive city to live in.
The UAE has also has per capita income, adjusted for a currency’s purchasing power, of around $60,886, according to the International Comparison Program, a statistical project run by the World Bank. Per capita income in the UK lags behind at $35,091.
Dubai and London were followed in the work rankings by Paris, Singapore, Rome, Geneva, Cape Town, Ottawa, Warsaw and Amsterdam – in that order.
This follows a report that the UAE now accounts for more than half of all oil and gas industry jobs available to UK consultants looking to the Gulf for work, according to Procorre, a consultancy.
The Zora gasfield, operated by Dana Gas, and the delivery of two new Lamprell rigs to Adnoc, account for a large number of these jobs, Procorre said.
But in Qatar job openings have fallen as energy projects – including the $6.5 billion Al Karaana joint venture between Shell and Qatar Petroleum – are cancelled.
The most job searched capital cities since January 2013:
1 - Dubai
2 - London
3 - Paris
4 - Singapore
5 - Rome
6 - Geneva
7 - Cape Town
8 - Ottowa
9 - Warsaw
10 - Amsterdam
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
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