A refrain among many salaried folks is that they often end up living from month to month with no savings of any kind to fall back on. One of the reasons cited for the lack of savings is the wide variety of entertainment and leisure activities that are on offer, and which, people feel socially compelled to participate in.
While leisure opportunities could be a valid reason in many other places, even in most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, the same cannot be said of Kuwait. The lone main public venue, the Entertainment City has been closed down for renovation since 2016, and most private venues that are available are comparatively expensive. The limited entertainment and socializing opportunities means most people in Kuwait, especially expatriates, are able tosave at least a portion of their salaries at month end.
A new survey by Bayt.com, the leading job site in the region, in partnership with YouGov, the international market research and data analytics firm, found that over 62 percent of respondents in Kuwait agreed that they managed to regularly save a portion of their monthly income.
More than half of those who responded to the survey said they were able to repatriate some portion of their salary to their home country, and 16 percent made regular financial investments It is easy to account for this relatively high-rate of savings found in the survey on the large number of expatriates in the Kuwait workforce.
Foreigners, after all, are more prone to saving and repatriating their hard-earned earnings back home. But then, this level of savings is not witnessed in other GCC states with large expat populations, such as in Dubai, where many people complain about the high cost of living, and the numerous entertainment options that each month lure them to spend.
The lack of suitable entertainment outlets in Kuwait and the rather puritanical approach taken by authorities not only limits spending opportunities in the country, it also keeps away tourists, dampens local and international spending on domestic tourism, detracts foreign talent from opting for a posting in Kuwait, increases the cost of hiring local alternatives and also discourages international investments.
Why would someone want to visit or invest in a staid location when there are many more attractive and interesting investment and touristic destinations within a two- to three-hour flying time radius of Kuwait.
The survey should be an eye-opener to policy makers in Kuwait. Rather than contemplate taxing the remittances of workers, a better option would be for government to liberalize the social sphere and open up more affordable venues that can attract and keep expatriate spending within the country. If a case-study is needed, policy planners and legislators can always hop over to neighboring Dubai.
The Bayt.com/YouGov survey on savings, labeled prosaically as the ‘Middle East and North Africa Salary Survey 2019’ provides an interesting snapshot that provides insights into perceptions and expectations among employees in the region with regard to their jobs, salaries and their employer, among others.
In terms of salary, 48 percent of respondents said that it consists of only basic salary; 39 percent claimed that their current salary package consisted of basic salary along with benefits; and 12 percent said they receive a basic salary as well as a commission and benefits.
When it came to the preferred pay structure, 61 percent of respondents said they preferred a ‘100 percent fixed’ pay structure, 30 percent said they would like a ‘partially-fixed’ pay structure with a variable pay for commissions and incentives, and only 9 percent said they preferred a ‘100 percent variable’ pay structure.
Among the various benefits employees in Kuwait received were, personal medical insurance (21 percent), transportation allowance (16 percent), bonus (21 percent) and housing allowance (18 percent).
Among those surveyed, almost half (47%) said they had been working in their current industry for up to six years, with another quarter (27%) have worked in the same industry for more than 10 years. When it came to specific employers, a majority (83%) of respondents said they had been working with their current employer for six years or less, with 50 percent having worked for their employer for less than three years.
In their current role, 32 percent of professionals claimed to be ‘midway in terms of seniority’ when asked about the level they have reached in their career path, with another 31 percent claiming they are ‘fairly senior level but not at the top yet’. In addition, 23 percent reported being in the ‘early days of their career’, and 14 percent being at the ‘most senior level’ they can achieve.
In addition, almost half (46 %) of respondents said they expected to receive a raise in 2019. Around 12 percent said they hoped to receive a 10 percent pay rise, while a larger portion (14%) said they expected a raise of only 1 to 5 percent.
Sadly, this optimism and confidence in employment is not reflected in many other countries in the region, with the possible exception of the other five GCC countries.
A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) says that in 2018, Arab countries had the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. Conflict and instability in Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, Algeria, Libya and Iraq increased economic deterioration and worsened unemployment opportunities, the ILO said in its survey of the region.
Around 20 percent of people aged 15-24 in Morocco were unemployed in 2018, and according to the survey a significant minority of people there “want more rapid or sudden (political) change, particularly young people.”
In Jordan and Lebanon, economies have been battered by the fallout from violence in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
Jordan has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and has the second-highest share of refugees compared to population in the world. At the same time, tax hikes introduced to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) targets to reduce Jordan’s debt burden triggered widespread protests in 2018.
Meanwhile, since 2011, Lebanon has taken in 1.5 million Syrians and Palestine refugees from Syria, accounting for 30 percent of Lebanon’s population, the world’s highest concentration per capita of refugees according to the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department.
Since 2013, there has been an increase in the number of people who are considering emigration in Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt, the survey said.
Often the desire to leave is fueled by a decline in the economic situation in the region. “Economic factors are the predominant reason for emigration followed by corruption, and men are more likely than women to consider emigrating, especially in Egypt,” the report stated.
The number of people risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea and seek refuge in Europe surged in the last eight years — peaking in 2016. Many of those migrants were fleeing violence in Syria and Iraq, but there were also large numbers of Afghans, North Africans and people from sub-Saharan Africa making the journey.
The survey also found that today, more people from the region seem to be turning away from Europe and looking to head towards North America and the GCC. While North America is top of the wish list for people in Jordan and Lebanon, the GCC is the number one choice for Egyptians, Yemenis, and Sudanese. Despite the best attempts by some people to keep out expatriates, the survey shows more people are headed this way. Watch out! The barbarians are at the gate.
– The Times Report
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