Business & Money | Tuesday 21 May, 2019 2:00 am |

The latest ‘Ramadan in the Middle East & North Africa Region’ poll
conducted by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s largest job site, revealed that 92.1% of professionals
in the region believe that their employers provide adequate support during the Holy Month of
Ramadan.
When asked what special adjustments their employers make during the Ramadan, over three
quarters (78.3%) of respondents mentioned that their employers offer flexible working
arrangements or shorter hours. Additionally, 1.5% said they were given more rest breaks
throughout the day, 6.6% said they maintain health and safety at work, 0.7% tolerate lower
productivity/leniency with deadlines, and 8.8% agreed their employers ticked all of these boxes.
According to poll takers, the following are the key areas that employers can do to improve their
support: avoiding scheduling meetings in the morning (60.9%); setting special Ramadan
working hours (22.4%); arranging special prayer times and facilities (7%); and organizing Iftar
gatherings (4.8%).
Productivity during Ramadan
When asked how satisfied they were with their performance levels during Ramadan 2018, the
vast majority (87.8%) of professionals stated that they were satisfied with their performance in
Ramadan.
Responding to whether they feel optimistic about their careers during Ramadan, a large
proportion of respondents (95.1%) agree that they do. As for job seekers, 94.4% of them state
that they have more time to search for jobs during Ramadan, with only 3% stating otherwise. In
fact, the vast majority of job seekers had positive feelings on job availability during Ramadan,
with only 1 in 4 saying otherwise (26.6%).
“The month of Ramadan continues to be a key highlight in the calendars of many MENA
professionals,” said Omar Tahboub, General Manager, Bayt.com. “As the region’s largest job
site, we continue to have 15,000+ jobs on Bayt.com every single day and we welcome everyone
to make use of these opportunities and employers to find their talent needs.”

Data for the 2019 Bayt.com ‘Ramadan in the Middle East & North Africa’ poll was collected
online from April 3, 2019 to May 19, 2019. Results are based on a sample of 7,937 respondents.
Countries that participated are the UAE, Bahrain, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, KSA, Yemen, and others.