The 2010 GCC and Middle East Salary Survey is now out from Bayt.com and YouGov Siraj and professionals across the Middle East can now benchmark and compare their latest salary raises to their peers. Indeed despite the economic situation, based on the latest Middle East salary survey 54% of professionals across the Middle East region have indicated they received a raise in the last 12 months, with the average raise for the year registering at 7.3%. A reasonable degree of optimism is in the air with respondents expecting raises for the next 12 months to be higher than last year to reach an average of 10.5%.

The cost of living meanwhile across the MENA countries is perceived to have risen by 23.5% in the past 12 months. Again there is the expectation that people’s financial situation will improve in the next 12 months and cost of living increases will slow down to 18% for the 2010 calendar year.

How have savings in the Middle East been impacted by the 2009 economic situation? A full 38% of professionals surveyed indicated they are unable to save any money at all. For professionals who are able to save, the average savings rate across the Middle East and North Africa registered at 10.48% of household income.

Despite the mismatch between salaries and cost of living increases in the past 12 months across the Middle East, a full 12% of the survey’s respondents feel they are ‘much better off’’ than people of a similar generation in their country and a further 28% feel they are ‘’somewhat better off’’. This is more than double the 16% of professionals surveyed who feel they are ‘’worse off’’ than their peers.

The Middle East salary survey which covers and analyzes salaries in the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and elsewhere in the MENA region also highlighted that as many as 54% of the region’s professionals would consider moving to a higher paying industry a result of quality of living considerations in the next 12 months while 24% would consider moving to a different country in the region as an expat and 23% would change companies within the same industry. As many as 13% would consider moving to a different region altogether as an expat and 9% would consider returning to their home country.

An extremely interesting finding of the Survey is that the majority of professionals in places like the KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain believe there are still skills shortages in their countries. In contrast, in Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria and Morrocco the reverse is true with professionals indicating there is excess supply of talent. Most skills shortages were reported in KSA and Qatar while the largest perceived surplus of talent was in Lebanon.

Perhaps the best news of the Survey is that the largest group of professionals across the Middle East (24%) think that their country’s salary and employment levels will not be affected beyond what we have already seen to date as a result of global salary and unemployment trends. Moreover 14% of respondents anticipate that salaries will continue to increase, the pace of hiring will be maintained at a very robust level and there will not be any lasting negative impact on local salary/employment trends.

Finally for employers in the Middle East looking to recruit and retain top talent in the current economic climate a very encouraging finding of the Survey is that very many drivers beside direct pay were seen to significantly influence loyalty to companies in the Middle East. These were led by ‘’opportunities for long term career progression’’ and also included factors such as quality of line and senior management as well as colleagues and work environment and the availability of training opportunities. Salary levels may be very important but the Bayt.com YouGov Siraj 2010 Middle East Salary Survey drove home once again that salaries alone do not determine loyalty or satisfaction levels of professionals in the Middle East vis-a-vis their companies.

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