Breadwinners leaving families at home

Without getting all school fees covered it’s becoming more common for bread-winners in the mid-level salary range from within the region – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, even India, Turkey and Greece – to leave their families at home, he said.

In the face of shrinking packages, Svetia Deshais, a financial adviser based in Abu Dhabi, said some of her clients are getting creative at cutting costs, even considering homeschooling their children.

Others with more vulnerable jobs and inflexible passports who have sought refuge in the UAE from war-torn countries have begun the long process of seeking to emigrate to Canada or Australia, just in case.

Despite jitters like these from expatriates who fear they will lose their positions, and the scary reality of those who already have, recruiters say the employment situation is far from doom and gloom.

Some clients who left after job losses – or because they wanted to move home – are trying to return, Ms Deshais said. And although salaries are flat in the UAE, rents are generally coming down, said Al Mettouri at Robert Half.

And the zest to come to work here lives on. In a recent survey conducted with an independent research firm, 275 general managers from across the UAE were asked if the country was still attractive for expats compared to five years ago. 32 per cent said it was still very attractive and 34 per cent said it was somewhat attractive, with 27 per cent of respondents listing lifestyle and leisure as the top draw.

Still very attractive

Of those who said the UAE was no longer attractive, 27 per cent cited the rising cost of living, while 25 per cent named VAT, 18 per cent pointed to stagnant salaries and 16 per cent general economic uncertainty.

Sam Instone, founder and chief executive of financial services company AES International, has heard the lament that the UAE is facing “another 2008” but says it’s not reflected in his client base.

“I do hear lots of people say ‘the world is ending, it’s all terrible’, but we always see, this country just keeps on expanding, we keep seeing more companies, more buildings appear, more expatriates appear,” he said.

And from Instone’s perspective, cost-cutting isn’t the only reason that benefit packages are shrinking.

“The traditional 'hardship' packages of expatriates moving from America or the UK to work in the Middle East and being compensated highly for it are gone, because it’s really an employment destination of choice now,” he said.

“Everyone wants to come and work here now … I’d call it a paradise posting."

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