Ninety per cent of working professionals polled in a survey in the Middle East and North Africa feel optimistic about 2022 as job prospects and optimism in the labour market improve on the back of economic growth, despite pandemic-induced headwinds, according to a new survey.
About 85 per cent of respondents believe the new year will bring many changes in their professional and personal lives, revealed a survey by jobs portal Bayt.com. It polled 3,395 respondents in countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, among others, from November 11 to December 15, 2021.
Fifty-six per cent of respondents said finding a new job was their top career-related resolution for 2022. Twenty-one per cent said receiving a promotion or a salary increase was their top resolution, while 21 per cent picked learning new skills at work and 2 per cent cited improving relationships with colleagues and managers.
“Our new survey clearly shows that most Mena professionals are not only up for a challenge next year, but value it as a way to enrich their professional and personal lives,” Ola Haddad, director of human resources at Bayt.com, said.
“In fact, getting a new job is among professionals’ top New Year’s resolutions and many professionals will begin 2022 with great aspirations.”
About 43 per cent of businesses in the UAE plan to increase salaries in 2022 by an average of 3 per cent, according to a report by recruitment agency Cooper Fitch this month.
The Cooper Fitch UAE Salary Guide 2022, which polled more than 600 companies in the UAE, found that 35 per cent of businesses plan to increase salaries from zero per cent to 5 per cent, while 4 per cent of companies will offer employees a raise between 6 per cent and 9 per cent, and 5 per cent will boost wages by 10 per cent or more.
About 37 per cent of organisations said they did not plan to make any changes to salaries next year, the Cooper Fitch research found.
A separate report by Mercer last month found that employers in the UAE will go on a hiring spree in 2022 and raise salaries by an average 3.6 per cent as demand for jobs picks up amid the UAE’s post-coronavirus economic recovery.
Attracting and retaining employees will also require an increased focus on flexible working policies such as hybrid or remote working, Mercer said in its 2021 Total Remuneration Survey.
While looking for new jobs in 2022, 86 per cent of respondents will spend more time looking for remote jobs, 76 per cent will use online job sites, 14 per cent picked company websites, 6 per cent chose social media, while 2 per cent will opt for online job fairs, the Bayt.com survey revealed.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their professional and personal growth during the past year.
One way to achieve professional goals at work is through an appraisal, according to the Bayt.com research. About 67 per cent of Mena professionals said they have year-end appraisals at their company while 20 per cent do not. Additionally, 87 per cent of professionals said that year-end appraisals at work are helpful.
About 65 per cent of working professionals in the Mena region identified saving money as the most popular personal resolution, 21 per cent picked exercising and following a healthy diet, 9 per cent chose spending more time with friends and family, while 6 per cent cited taking more vacations, the survey found.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
