Qatar Employment Survey Results

Press Release

Coming to Qatar Right Decision Say 87.6% of Expatriate Workers
Doha, Qatar 16/08/09

87.6% of expatriate employees in Qatar said they were happy they had come to Qatar, according to a Qatar jobs and employment survey commissioned by the tourist and residents' website Qatar Visitor and run with the assistance of ILoveQatar.net.

The survey, which questioned more than 220 employees working in Qatar, aimed to assess both how people found work in Qatar, and how that work had changed their lives.

Results showed that over 30% of employees found work via the internet, either via online job sites (16.1%), through jobs advertised directly on employment websites (7.2%) or by uploading their CV to websites (7.2%). Agencies accounted for a further 16.6% of positions found. More than a quarter of those who found work in Qatar via agencies claimed they had been illegally charged by those agencies.

The survey also asked why people came to Qatar. While almost half of those surveyed replied that money was the main motivating factor, a sizeable proportion of respondents (28.1%) sought work in Qatar in order to experience a new culture, whilst a smaller proportion (5.3%) were looking for adventure.

The majority of workers surveyed were well-educated, with 57.2% having a graduate or a post graduate degree. Only 1.8% of respondents claimed no qualification at all.

As is to be expected, the majority of those coming to Qatar experienced a sharp increase in salary. Before coming to Qatar, the largest income group (23.5%) earned between 501 and 1000 dollars per month. After relocating to Qatar, this group fell to 11.8%. In contrast, there was a sharp increase in the next two income groups, with the proportion of those earning from 1001-2000 dollars a month increasing from 13.7% to 25.7%, and the proportion of those earning 2001 - 4000 dollars a month more than doubling from 12.4% to 25.7%.

Qatar Visitor editor Philip Beech stated:

"The majority of our users come to Qatar Visitor looking for work. We hope that the results of this survey will help give them ideas of how to look for work in Qatar, who is likely to find work in Qatar and also what to expect when they get here."

CEO of I Love Qatar, Khalifa Saleh, added:
"The results clearly show that there is increased usage of online portals by those seeking jobs in the Middle East. It's undoubtedly going to increase in popularity in the future.

"Unfortunately, the results also show that there is a greater need for the regulation of employment agencies."

To view the full results of the survey, visit the Qatar Visitor Employment Survey.

Kindly Supplied by:
Qatar Visitor, which is part of the Soccerphile Group, is a comprehensive online tourist and resident guide to Qatar, with a particular emphasis on employment and finding work in Qatar.

Contact: Philip Beech (Editor)
philip@qatarvisitor.com