Neither the international financial downturn, nor the economic impact of the Arab spring over the past year have taken the shine off salaries for gulf jobs in the past year. The 2012 Gulf Business salary survey of middle east jobs was calculated by taking the average salary across the region for Western, Asian and Arab expats across different sectors in the six GCC countries for the first quarter of 2012.

Alicia Buller, Editor of gulfbusiness.com commented on the outcome of the survey saying "employment in the middle east has largely mapped the upward fate of the GCC economy. In discussions with regional recruitment companies, we have learned that through tracking job vacancies, salaries in many sectors have increased. As the region's economy recovery continues apace, sales and marketing managers are bringing home the highest salaries in 2012, earning an average monthly wage of $11,560." 

Although HR managers earn the second highest salaries in the region at around $11,468.6 per month, human resources was the only industry that witnessed a dramatic average salary drop year-on-year, with companies scaling back the function of HR departments.

As a result, expatriate HR managers in the UAE, saw their wages slashed by 37%. "Roles like organisational design, payroll and recruitment were all represented in HR headcount, but now have been rolled into one HR generalist role," said Christo Daniels, managing director of recruiter Morgan McKinley.

Explaining the dramatic decline Christo went on to say "The market has corrected itself. So we're back to pre-2008 salary levels" for those in the HR sector. 

Supporting a recent survey by Gulf Business, which saw CEO's salaries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) topping the salaries list, this again is the case across all of the sectors investigated by Gulf Business where KSA comes out on top.

Qatar salaries is where the growth is the highest, with the salary survey reporting Creative Directors seeing increases of 32% in monthly salaries as this nation begins to lay the foundations for the next decade of growth. 

The results presented below show the roles that were selected to give an indicative overview of the sector in the 2012 Gulf Business salary survey:

Middle East Overall - salary survey ranked results (monthly salary in $) 

1. Sales/Marketing (Role: Head of Sales and Marketing)- 2012: $11,560; 2011: $10,470 

2. Human Resources (Role: Head of Human Resources)- - 2012: $11,468; 2011: $12,007 

3. Construction (Role: Project Manager/Chief Engineer) - 2012: $11,454; 2011 $11,105 

4. Banking (Role: Average of Branch Manager, Treasury Manager and Retail/Personal Banking Manager)- 2012: $11,240; 2011 $10,931 

5. Information Technology(Role: Head of Information Technology)- 2012: $10,593; 2011: $9,900 

6. Public Relations(Role: Public Relations Director)- 2012: $9,839; 2011: $8,083 

7. Advertising(Role: Creative Director)- 2012: $9,548; 2011: $7,697 

8. Real Estate(Role: Real Estate Manager)- 2012: $9,086; 2011 $8,500 

9. Hospitality(Role: Hotel General Manager)- 2012: $8,598; 2011: $8,377 

10. Publishing(Role: Editor)- 2012: $7,545; 2011: $6,308