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19 March 2024

Why UAE, Qatar have world's highest jobs-to-population rate

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

Everyone in the world wants a good job – a job that pays well to cover the bills, one that does not smash our dreams of a good lifestyle and where there is no stifling feeling that the employer is taking undue advantage of the employee.

With the aftermath of the global recession still being felt in several parts of the world, many in the world are clinging onto their dream of a so-called good job, only to feel dejected by the ever limited options available.

Residents in some countries fare better than others and the happiness level is higher in these places, where more people have a good job.

According to research conducted by Gallup, a research-based, performance-management consulting company, of the 7 billion people in the world, there are 5 billion adults aged 15 and older.

Of these 5 billion, 3 billion tell Gallup they desire a full-time job. Only 1.3 billion actually have a good job, which means that the real unemployment rate in the world is more than 50 per cent.

Gallup uses a Payroll to Population (P2P) metric that provides important information about the health of a country’s economy and finally defines how many people in that particular country have a good job.

This P2P quantifies the percentage of workers in good jobs, rather than subsistence jobs that do little to raise the individual out of poverty or contribute to the country’s economic output.

We’re lucky to be in the UAE – it belongs to that elite group of countries where the P2P rates are the highest in the world. In simpler terms, most of us here in the UAE are gainfully employed, happy with our jobs and working to our potential.

The list of countries with highest P2P rates tends to include some of the wealthiest – or those with the highest GDP per capita – such as the UAE and the US.

In fact, the UAE’s P2P rate of 61 per cent is second only to Gulf peer Qatar, which boasts of a P2P rate of 62 per cent – just a notch above the UAE’s. Other countries that figure in the top list include Belarus, Latvia, Russia, Estonia, Canada, Sweden, Denmark and the US.

 

Top 10 countries with highest P2P rates* in 2014

#1 Qatar

62%

#2 United Arab Emirates

61%

#3 Belarus

53%

#4 Latvia

49%

#5 Russia

48%

#6 Estonia

47%

#7 Canada

45%

#8 Sweden

45%

#9 Denmark

44%

#9 United States of America

44%

*Among total adult population; Source: Gallup

 On the other end of the spectrum, are countries with the lowest P2P scores. These economies tend to have large informal economies with high self-employment, which at the global level has a negative relationship with GDP per capita. Many of these countries also have lower-than-average workforce participation.

This pattern was seen by Gallup in many sub-Saharan African countries, which tend to dominate the list of countries with the lowest P2P scores every year. Most countries in the list are from Africa, with exceptions such as Bangladesh.

 

Top 10 countries with lowest P2P rates* in 2014

#1 Liberia

3%

#2 Haiti

4%

#3 Niger

4%

#4 Mali

5%

#5 Burkina Faso

6%

#6 Burundi

6%

#7 Sierra Leone

6%

#8 Yemen

6%

#9 Bangladesh

7%

#10 Ethiopia

7%

#10 Guinea

7%

#10 South Sudan

7%

#10 Togo

7%

*Among total adult population; Source: Gallup

 Gallup’s global P2P rate remained stable in 2014, with 26 per cent of the world’s adults – or roughly 1.3 billion people – working full time for an employer. This percentage has not grown since 2011, it notes.

(Image via Shutterstock)