UAE jobs: Over 90% of workers are open to new roles, says Michael Page study

The survey, titled ‘Talent Trends‘ took responses from 70,000 working adults.

Job seekers in UAE

According to the survey results, more than half (68 percent) of 625 UAE respondents are active job seekers, and are looking for a new role over the next six months.

About 27 percent of UAE respondents are “on the fence about looking elsewhere and are not ruling it out but are waiting until the economy improves or for the right opportunity to arise,” the survey said.

Moreover, seeing these figures, employers cannot “confidently” rely on their employees to be retained this year.

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However, to tackle these problems, new employees are “almost equally likely to be open to new opportunities as their more tenured counterparts, with more than half of those who started their job as recently as 2022 considered ‘active job seekers’,” the study said.

“The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, and similar variations have dominated conversations in the post-pandemic world of work. These terms refer to a subtle but transformative shift in workplace dynamics that has occurred around the world. We believe these changes add up to an ‘Invisible Revolution’, with significant implications for employers,” Michael Page senior managing director Middle East and Africa Pierre-Emmanuel Dupil said.

Key findings from the study include:

1. Resignations continue to rise: Despite claims that the peak of the “Great Resignation” has passed, the data revealed that the number of resignations is not slowing down. In 2022, resignations were twice as high as in 2021, with a 29 percent resignation rate compared to 15 percent the previous year.
2. Shift towards remote and hybrid work: In the UAE, approximately 54 percent of workers hold full-time office roles, while remote work (11 percent) and hybrid work models (35 percent) are becoming increasingly common. This trend enables individuals to search for jobs and be contacted by recruiters more easily while working from home.
3. Satisfaction with current roles: Around 80 percent of UAE employees expressed satisfaction with their current workloads, while 51 percent were content with their salaries. Additionally, half of the respondents (50 percent) reported overall satisfaction with their current roles, indicating that employees can be generally happy in their positions while still considering future opportunities.
4. Importance of work-life balance: Work-life balance was identified as the most crucial aspect of a job, with 49 percent of respondents ranking it as their top priority. Furthermore, 32 percent of UAE participants stated they would reject a promotion if they believed it would negatively impact their well-being. This sentiment was shared among individuals with and without children, emphasising the universal importance of work-life balance.
5. Flexibility alongside pay and career progression: Flexibility has become a fundamental expectation in addition to competitive pay and career advancement. This shift highlights the growing significance of work arrangements that accommodate employees’ personal lives and well-being.

“Seismic shifts in employee attitudes and motivations have created a new talent landscape — no age group, country, or industry is unaffected. There’s no going back to the way things were pre-pandemic; the change we see today is here to stay,” Dupil said.

“Our study highlights a long-term transformation of the employment market, as people reassess the role of work in their lives following the disruption of the pandemic.”

Nicholas Kirk, CEO, PageGroup added that these trends in the UAE “mirror the sentiment of the global talent market – every region has seen a transformative change across all age groups, markets, and industries.

“It is clear there has been a universal reset of people’s relationships with their jobs. Work-life balance, a competitive salary, and strong career progression prospects have become non-negotiable, and professionals are willing to leave their current roles to secure these elsewhere.

“These are not fleeting trends or reactionary responses to a period of turbulence. Rather, they are reshaping the workplace in a way that will subtly yet fundamentally change the way businesses attract and retain their talent,” he said.