Coronavirus: 64% UAE residents worried about job loss, pay cuts, shows survey

Dubai - Even though half are worrying about jobs and the economy, the thing that currently concerns most people in the two countries is a loved one getting sick due to the virus.

An increasing number of people in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are concerned about job losses or salary cuts because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest data from a YouGov survey.

Run during April 8-15, the survey shows an increasing number of people in the UAE and KSA are concerned, and the proportion of respondents who said this has increased from 44 per cent to 51 per cent this week. Notably, UAE residents are much more worried about this outcome as compared to people in Saudi Arabia (64 per cent vs 38 per cent).

In both the countries, concern over job loss was seen more among expats than locals. In the UAE, Western (74 per cent) and Asian expats (68 per cent) appeared more nervous about this scenario as compared to the Emiratis (46 per cent). Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, expats are more anxious about losing their livelihoods than locals (56 per cent vs 30 per cent).


For most of the listed areas, concern is more widespread among UAE residents as compared to Saudi Arabia residents, especially in matters relating to finance and economy. 56 per cent UAE residents are nervous about the global economic impact of the pandemic, however, concern among KSA residents is lower, at 43 per cent.

In addition to this, UAE residents are also more likely than those in Saudi Arabia to worry about other financial losses such as money put in investments, property, etc (48 per cent vs 32 per cent).

Even though half are worrying about jobs and the economy, the thing that currently concerns most people in the two countries is a loved one getting sick due to the virus. The number of people saying this has increased from 56 per cent to 60 per cent this week. Those respondents who are married with children are the most worried about this outcome (63 per cent saying this).

Thinking about the impact of the coronavirus, more than half of UAE and Saudi Arabia residents (54 per cent) said the pandemic will have a long lasting damaging impact on their respective country's economies, up from 50 per cent who said this last week. 38 per cent on the other hand, think the impact will be short-term. Although there has been an increase in the number of people who foresee a lasting adverse impact on the economy in both the countries, UAE residents are more likely to expect this outcome as compared to Saudi Arabia residents (59 per cent vs 49 per cent).

Roughly half the public in both the countries (49 per cent) believe jobs and employment as well as their wages (46 per cent) will suffer over a prolonged period of time.

On the other hand, residents are expecting a short-term negative impact on the price of essential items (45 per cent. For household finances their opinion stands divided, with 42 per cent saying the impact will be long term while 43 per cent saying it will be short-lived.

The data shows that people aged between 25-34 years continue being the most pessimistic about the likely outcomes of the Coronavirus and for all areas tested they were more likely than their counterparts to say the pandemic's damage will be long lasting.

Data collected online by YouGov Omnibus among 2001 respondents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia between April 8 and 15, 2020 using YouGov's panel of over 6 million people worldwide. Data is representative of the adult national population in each country.