Many expats in the Gulf say they\'d like to live in Dubai A survey of over 35,000 foreign professionals in the Gulf has found that the United Arab Emirates has the highest expat retention rate, with 81 per cent of foreigners living and working there having no desire to leave.
Although the country was not exempt to the global economic crisis and reeled under a recession, the combination of “a rebound in business confidence, declining rents and the country\'s high level of political stability” is proving a magnet for expatriates, the annual report from recruitment firm Gulf Talent found.
Dubai was voted the most attractive Gulf city, with the largest proportion – 37 percent – of expats who lived elsewhere in the region saying they wished to relocate there.
During 2011, Saudi Arabia led the way in terms of job creation, with 62 percent of firms there increasing their head counts. Across the Gulf, the oil and gas, health care and retail sectors expanded the most, while banking and construction – which suffered particularly during the economic crisis – fared the worst. Overall, nearly all Gulf countries saw economic growth within the period.
Salaries increased the most in Oman, fuelled by strikes by Omani nationals and a hike in public sector salaries. In real terms, however, due to low inflation rates, workers in the UAE and Bahrain actually enjoyed the highest increases.
The survey found that last year\'s political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East had had a “mixed” impact on recruitment. Many employers said they were finding it harder to attract Western expatriates, who feared the region was unsafe, but that there were now more non-Western expatriates from places which had experienced unrest looking for work.
Bahrain\'s ability to attract and retain talent in the Gulf was severely damaged by the uprising which broke out in February last year, causing it to drop from the fourth most popular country among expats in 2010 to the least. It also had the lowest rate of job creation.