Singapore Loses Crown As Best Expat Professional Location

According to HSBC’s recent survey results, Switzerland is now the best choice for expatriate professionals and their careers.

Singapore held the top spot in the influential survey for four years before losing its crown to Switzerland, and must now be content with second place. Worse still, Switzerland jumped from eighth place in last year’s study straight into number one due to its stunning surroundings, high quality of life and competitively huge wages for experienced professionals.

The average salary in Switzerland is, at $111,587, almost 50 per cent higher than the mean average wage over the 33 countries surveyed, allowing 70 per cent of the sector’s respondents more disposable income than they’d had in their previous postings. Whether expatriates on the up career-wise like or hate surveys, it has to be admitted they have their uses when a career move is being planned. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ as regards promising expat professional destinations as it depends largely on personal circumstances as well as qualifications and experience.

For example, Singapore, in spite of its drop in popularity, is a preferred destination for expats with families due to its high standard of education, quality of life and job stability. As regards the rest of Asia, not one capital city featured in the leading states listings. The HSBC survey is one of the better surveys in the pack for accuracy and lack of semi-advertorial attempts as well as its high number of countries and respondents. No less than 18,053 expats in 163 world countries took part, with the questionnaire including sections on mental as well as physical wellbeing, fulfilment, local culture and, most importantly nowadays, political stability.