With the official weekend in the UAE shifting from Friday / Saturday to Saturday / Sunday, UAE residents have had to adjust their personal and social activities to a new weekend schedule and a new set of days. Through a study launched by Ipsos in UAE this week, 65% of UAE residents said that Saturday will be their new Friday.
The survey, executed online on the 25th and 26th of January, on a representative sample of 1,200 UAE residents, aged 15+, showed that 80% of Arab Expats and 74% of Local Nationals, will consider Saturday as their new Friday, while only 51% of Asian and 45% of Western Expats stated Saturday as their new Friday, evenly split on the two days.
Opinions also varied very differently between those who work within the public sector versus those employed by the Private sector, with 77% of those within the Public Sector stating that Saturday would be their new Friday, compared to only 57% stating the same from those employed within the Private Sector. Those Self-employed had similar opinions, with 57% also stating that Saturday would be their new Friday, a more even split between the 2 days.
Females were more likely to opt for Saturday as their new Friday, with 7 out of 10 females stating so, compared to males who were less inclined than females towards Saturday with 6 out of 10 stating that they now carry out the same activities they used to do on Fridays, on Saturdays and not on Sundays.
Students and those Single respondents opted for Saturday as their new Friday, with 78% and 74% respectively. Yet, only 62% of those married respondents declared Saturday as the new Friday.
How and when such trends will settle and embed themselves within our society, remains to be up for debate. The change of weekend has only been in place for 4 weeks so far, and as such, we do expect behaviours and patterns to readapt with time. From our end, we promise to run this again soon and monitor these new trends.
Have a nice weekend.
