Related: 60% of UAE employers plan to hire more workers in 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to the global jobs market last year, but sentiments towards UAE salaries for 2021 look promising.
A new report by Hays recruitment agency showed that 44 per cent of respondents in the UAE expect a pay rise in the next 12 months.
Just over half are confident their pay package will remain the same, while only two per cent foresee a cut coming their way.
The results are surprising, considering the global salary cuts and redundancies in 2020, due to strict lockdowns.
However, recruitment experts are hopeful the market is set for a rebound – even if a little slower than normal, due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19.
“We do not expect the pandemic to negatively affect salaries in 2021,” said Samantha Wright, senior recruitment consultant with Hays.
“This view is reflected by professionals working in the UAE, with 53 per cent expecting their salary to remain the same, year-on-year in 2021, 44 expecting an increase and two per cent expecting a decrease.”
Going forward, Ms Wright said IT specialists with digital technology and data-driven skill-sets will be the “most in-demand professionals in the market in 2021”.
This is due to the UAE government’s ongoing focus on digitisation and automation.
Positions that invite a big salary package include IT directors and managers, as well as digital marketing managers.
In late 2020, the government embarked on one of the biggest overhauls of the legal system in years, with changes to family law and other areas affecting people's daily lives announced.
The laws reflect progressive measures to improve living standards for both nationals and residents in the UAE.
As a result, the legal sector is likely to be a part of the economy's rebound efforts, with more opportunities for legal advisers, legal secretaries and paralegals likely this year.
As part of the Hays 2021 Emiratisation Salary and Employment report, experts have mapped out a salary guide that Emiratis can use to benchmark their salary packages against others in the region.
The salaries have been broken down into three categories – the private sector and the public sector in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The report clearly shows that public sector organisations in Abu Dhabi pay the highest salaries to UAE nationals – sometimes more than 40 per cent higher than private organisations.
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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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Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
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Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
