Some key findings include:

Advertising: Some advertisers actually increased their ad spending during the first twelve months of the UK recession (July 2008 to June 2009).  Grocer ASDA increased its spending 40 percent during this period, while the government’s Central Office of Information boosted spending by 33 percent to back campaigns about the dangers of smoking and drinking, the HPV vaccine and swine flu.  Meanwhile, a number of big brands cut their ad budgets significantly: P&G was down 15 percent, Toyota off 57 percent and Tiscali, an internet service, down 92 percent.  With the exceptions of Audi and Seat, auto manufacturers all cut spending, from Hyundai (-6%) to Lexus (-66%).

Jobs: Total job vacancies – both online and in print – dropped from about one million in January 2007 to approximately 500,000 in September 2009.  The number of jobs in IT, secretarial, construction and sales has each fallen by more than 50 percent between July 2008 and June 2009.  Positions within education, social services and hospitals/medial have been the least affected, with the latter actually showing a year-on-year growth of around two percent.

Consumers: British consumers continue to be frugal when it comes to shopping. Two-thirds said that they planned to spend less on clothes, while 59 percent said that they are looking to save on gas and electric bills.  Both of those figures are a slight improvement from surveys conducted earlier this year.

“Despite some confidence returning, a legacy of the recession will be the desire amongst consumers to continue to spend less on both grocery brands and financial service products.  Many leading brands have adapted well to this change in consumer behavior to date, but the real test will be how they cope with this intent long term,” said Nikki Williams, UK Managing Director at Nielsen’s Media division.

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“Job security is the biggest concern for UAE consumers.  However, despite uncertainty levels tripling over the last six months, we are still among the top 10 countries with a comparatively higher perception of local job prospects.  More than one in three UAE consumers perceives their prospects as good or excellent over the next 12 months,” said Piyush Mathur, regional managing director, Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan at Nielsen.

In comparison, about a quarter of global consumers described their job prospects as bad in the coming year, with Latvians being particularly pessimistic – 78 percent responded negatively.

“Job concerns reflect in consumer spending habits.  For instance, consumers in the UAE are now tending to keep their spare cash in savings and using it to pay off their debts.  They are controlling discretionary spending, especially on clothing, entertainment outside the home and technology upgrades,” said Mathur.

The most attractive functions identified by survey respondents were human resources (HR) and public relations (PR), while sales was the least popular.  Males identified IT and marketing as preferred departments, while females wanted to work in customer care, administration or PR.  Both genders ranked HR as an attractive function.  The top three sectors were IT/telecom, banking and finance, and oil and gas.

“Businesses need to better understand and map the needs and expectations of employees in such a competitive and dynamic market,” said Hany Mwafy, Managing Director for North Africa for Nielsen.  “This information will help companies retain and attract top talent, a critical factor to being successful in this challenging time.”

The interviews were based on broadly structured questionnaires and covered employees of varying seniority levels and functions.  Males comprised approximately 80 percent of the sample, and showed a higher concentration in sales, while females had a greater representation in the media sector.  The survey was conducted in partnership with Wazayef Masr, Egypt’s leading employment-related newspaper.