ABU DHABI // More than two thirds of professionals in the UAE are feeling positive about next year’s prospects, according to a poll conducted by the Middle East’s top job site.
In an online survey, Bayt.com asked 856 employees in the country about their expectations for the new year.
Almost 40 per cent of respondents described their outlook as “very positive’ while one third said they felt “excited” about the coming year.
However, eight in 10 of those polled said they wanted their career and life to be “very different” next year with one in 10 saying they felt anxious about 2016.
Nearly all those questioned believed in “reinventing oneself, career and/or life” while viewing the turning of the year as a chance to make professional new year resolutions.
The UAE results were a part of a larger survey which interviewed 7,708 individuals from 15 countries across the Mena region in November and December.
Figures from the Emirates resembled those of the survey as a whole, which included respondents from all six GCC countries in addition to Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
“The fact that employees are resolving to improve their working habits and work harder in the new year is a boon for workplaces throughout the Mena region,” said Suhail Masri, vice president of sales at Bayt.com.
Almost a third said their professional resolutions included working harder in the new year, although almost half admitted to “only sticking to their resolutions to some extent”.
newsdesk@thenational.ae