UAE's banking and finance industry reigns supreme, latest Bayt.com and YouGovSiraj figures reveal

Construction and real estate were the second most popular industry choices in the UAE with 26% and 25% of workers signalling their preferences for this industry sector, as opposed to publishing, aerospace, charity, military/defence/police, power and transport/travel which featured amongst the least most popular industries.

Corroborating the popularity of the banking and finance sector the survey showed, was the fact that 10% of all surveyed workers had either moved to the industry - or were planning to - which was the highest amongst all of the industry choices. Furthermore, the majority of respondents at 35% felt that banking and finance was the best industry for attracting and retaining talent in the UAE, with the bulk of respondents at 38% believing that the industry offered its employees the best increments, bonuses and benefits.

Respondents in Kuwait also cited the banking and finance sector as the most preferred, as did Jordan. By contrast, Saudi Arabia's respondents listed oil, gas and petrochemicals as the favourite, with 49% feeling it offered the greatest benefits to employees - perhaps evidence of the belief that as a highly profitable sector, employees personally would benefit from the sector's economic gains.

The Top Industries Survey was conducted to gauge consumer opinions about various sectors, in order to reveal consumer and employee sentiments vis-a-vis their industry and highlight which of the region's industries are most likely to attract talent.

Bayt.com's CEO, Rabea Ataya, stated:

"It is highly interesting to look at people's feelings towards the industries that drive jobs and wealth in the region and which are perceived to be growing, and to look at the aspirations or planned movements of people and the reasons why they would indeed make a change. Conducting surveys such as these allows recruitment organisations such as Bayt.com and other HR professionals and industry stakeholders to understand the drivers of industry trends in terms of their most valuable asset: their human capital."

The Top Industries survey also looks, in part, at which industries are perceived to offer the best work/life balance. Surprisingly in the UAE, banking and finance featured as the preferred choice with 37% selecting it as the most attractive industry, dispelling somewhat the popular notion that with banking comes long, unsociable hours. This was true of all the surveyed countries except for Morocco, where 32% of respondents believed that working in education and academia allows employees to have the best balance. Hand-in-hand with the banking industry as perceived source of best work/life balance in the survey is the government/civil service sector, which also garnered 37% of respondent's votes.

Interestingly, the survey revealed that there was a close correlation between the least preferred industries and the industries that were struggling to stay financially viable. A total of 24% of respondents felt agriculture and forestry was a lagging industry, and only 2% of respondents cited it as a favourite. The same was true of the charity and voluntary sector, 11% felt it was struggling financially, with just 2% selecting it as a preferred industry.

"These figures may represent a response to the popular perception that if an industry is seen to be financially deficient, then people are less likely to want to enter it. This is proven by the oil and gas sector - it is one that is seen as the most profitable and is one of the most popular choices in terms of industries to move to," said Nassim Ghrayeb, CEO YouGovSiraj.

The survey additionally reveals in detail which industries people are seeking to change from, which they are changing to, and the reasons that they want to make an industry change. The majority of professionals who have changed industries - or who are planning to - would move for ''a better salary'' at 56% of all respondents, closely followed by ''better career growth'' at 52%.

The survey reveals that in the UAE 18% of respondents have changed industry in the past 24 months and 36% are currently considering a change in industry. The industries professionals cite they most want to move to in the UAE are oil, gas and petrochemicals (11%), government/civil service (10%), banking and finance (8%) and real estate (8%). Interestingly, an outstanding 40% of respondents in the UAE cite the government sector as an extremely favourable place to work.

Industries cited as suffering the most from shortages of skilled labour in the UAE are construction (at 28% of respondents), healthcare/medical services (14%), education/academia (12%) and IT (10%). By contrast, industries perceived as most successful in attracting international talent are construction, banking and finance, oil, gas and petrochemicals and the airline industry.

"Any organisation or stakeholder within the HR spectrum, from pan-regional recruitment websites like Bayt.com, to industry professionals, private organisations or other recruitment players, can benefit from this type of highly relevant and beneficial quantitative data, in order to determine people's perceptions vis-a-vis their current industry and which they perceive as preferred industries," explained Ataya.

"The Bayt.com/YouGovSiraj Top Industries Survey allows for insights into what drives the movement of talent, and divulges where there may well be a talent shortfall or indeed surfeit in the near future. This can help stakeholders make decisions and implement changes today that facilitate recruiting and retaining top professionals in their industry, and enables the industry leaders to make the necessary changes that will allow them to rise in the ranks of preferred industries in the future," concluded Ataya.

Data for the August/ September Bayt.com YouGovSiraj 2008 Top Industries Survey was collected online between the period of 20th August and 21st September 2008 with 2,927 respondents across the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt. Males and females of all ages, from more than fifteen different nationalities across all industries were included in the survey.