These are the emerging markets millennials most want to work in

Salary and career advancement are the most important job criteria in major emerging economies. Image: REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

Rosamond Hutt
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how United Arab Emirates is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

United Arab Emirates

Young people who would like to move overseas to advance their careers say China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would be their top emerging market destinations, according to a World Economic Forum survey.

This is the second year in a row that China and the UAE were the favourite emerging markets for career progression among millennials who took part in the Forum’s annual Global Shapers survey. Brazil was next, followed by South Africa and Argentina.

Image: World Economic Forum

Globally, taking into account every country and not just emerging nations, China and the UAE were in 11th and 12th places respectively, ahead of all Scandinavian countries and Singapore. The US, UK and Canada lead the global list.

Strong job prospects could explain the UAE’s popularity among Gen Y’ers. Around a third (34%) of respondents globally identified the lack of economic opportunity and employment as one of the three most serious issues affecting their country – making it the biggest issue of concern behind corruption. In the UAE, only one in 10 of local respondents saw unemployment as a serious issue.

Another reason may be that, globally, millennials still value salary (54%) and career advancement (46%) over a sense of purpose and impact on society (37%) in their jobs.

While a sense of purpose is the top priority among millennials from Western countries, in major emerging economies, such as China and India, salary and career advancement remain the most important job criteria. This is also true in the UAE.

Around 20,000 millennials, aged 18-35, took part in the Global Shapers Annual 2016 Survey, which aims to gauge how young people see the world and what they want to do about it. Respondents from 187 countries and territories gave their views on issues relating to business, economy, politics, technology and values.

The Global Shapers Community is a global network of Hubs developed and led by young people aged between 20 and 29, who are exceptional in their potential, their achievement and their drive to make a contribution to their communities.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum