Australian expats who move overseas earn some of the biggest wages in the world among the expat population, a recent survey has found.
The latest information that has been released as part of the HSBC Expat Explorer survey, has revealed that Australian’s are the highest earners among expats working overseas, with more than a third of those Australian expats surveyed earning in excess of $201,000 USD per year. Interesting, a third of the Australian expats surveyed work in the banking and financial service industries.
The survey, which questioned 3,385 expats living in 100 countries throughout the world, found that the wage trends of Australians living overseas do not appear to have been as heavily impacted by global financial uncertainty as many other nationalities. HSBC head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management in Australia, Graham Heunis, discussed the Australian’s propensity to avoid the negative headwinds that appear to be affecting incomes overall: “Despite the global and social volatility going on in parts of the world at the moment, Australian expats appear to be financially resilient, with higher disposable incomes compared to back in Australia,” he said.
In addition to this, Australia as a whole appears to be maintaining a strong financial position, despite the events of the global economic crisis, with recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that unemployment levels throughout the country have fallen in recent months.
Authors of the report also noted that many Australians are investing their money in their home country, 46% of those surveyed have invested in property in Australia. This compares with a global average of 30%.
Of further interest was the fact that many Australians living overseas are keep to return back to their home country. One third of those questioned revealed that they believed the political or social conditions had deteriorated in their host country and more than 50% said that they were considering returning to Australia in the near future, the majority of which were based in the Middle East.
Speaking in an article in MSN’s Nine News, Carol Driver, editor of UK TNT Magazine revealed that she had observed a drop in the number of Australian expats living and working in Britain: “While still coming in their droves, there’s not much doubt there are fewer Aussies than there used to be working during this time, or staying beyond their temporary visa for employment,” she said.
“Some of our readers have told us they wanted to stay in the UK at the end of their two-year visa, but finding work was too difficult, others cite limited career progression or low wages coupled with expensive public transport and rising house prices.
“So for some, the lure of a growing economy, good job prospects and a decent salary (not to mention guaranteed sunshine and beautiful beaches) back home is too much to ignore at least for the moment.”
