UAE Salary Guide 2012

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Welcome to our annual UAE Salary Guide for 2012. Firstly I’d like to outline the methodology we have used in compiling this market intelligence.

It is not intended to be a holistic guide to every job in every sector. Rather, it is a snapshot of the most popular positions from mid-management level upwards within our four specialist divisions: Banking & Financial Services; Accountancy & Finance, Technical; Sales, Marketing & Support.

It should be acknowledged that in order to arrive at these results we have accounted for a number of dissenting criteria, including job title; company; nationality; relocation packages; geographical dispersion; bonus sizes; longevity in the market and competitive edge.

Job opportunities are up across the board on 2010 and 2009 numbers but still 40% down on 2011 for the same time of year.

Abu Dhabi in particular has witnessed an exponential rise in vacancies, although less heavily weighted in the public sector than at any point in the last five years.
Market competitiveness has received a significant lift from the freedom of movement driven by the labour reforms at the beginning of 2011.

Three bodies: Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED), Dubai Competitiveness Council and, at federal level, the Emirates Competitiveness Council (ECC) have the joint aim to align the UAE’s laws, regulations and policies to the best practices in the world for promoting innovation, technology development and entrepreneurship.
The upshot of all this will be an open, transparent labour market in which employees are paid a more stable market rate.

As the economic boom reached its zenith, Gulf Business talked of a ‘war for talent’ in the UAE as salaries sky-rocketed in line with increased demand for highly qualified expatriate and local candidates. The following downturn cut deeply into the workforce and rightsizing of both salaries and headcount was all too apparent.

The last two years have seen a further correction and we are left with a more stable salary structure inline with inflation: acute salary swings will be restricted to disciplines with a skill set or language shortage. For everyone else, a remuneration uplift of over 15% is likely to remain a distant memory.

We hope you find the insights within this report interesting.

Trefor Murphy
Managing Director| UAE:
T: +971 (0) 4 324 4094
tmurphy@morganmckinley.ae

Download our UAE Salary Guide 2012 now>>> [PDF 826.99KB]