Young professionals leaving their homes to take up jobs in another country have better careers and earn more if they go before they are 35 years old.
Taking an expat assignment comes with an average 35% salary increase from $40,358 to $54,484 for young adult expats.
Older expats also gain more pay – but not so much as their younger colleagues. For 35 to 54 year olds, the rise averages 24%, while those aged 55 and over pick up just a 9% increase.
And the best places for young professionals to go to get the biggest pay packets are Indonesia and Turkey.
Other key destinations include Singapore, the US, India and China.
The data comes from the HSBC Bank expat explorer survey 2019.
“Expats are increasingly looking at more than just the financial returns they get from moving to a new market,” said John Goddard, head of HSBC’s expat unit.
Germany voted best workplace for young expats
“They’re looking at work-life balance, the general environment in which they want to bring up their children, they’re looking at safety.”
The bank asked nearly 22,500 expats about their careers for the survey.
More than a third (35%) said they moved countries to improve their career prospects, while 28% were seeking a fresh challenge and 12% were asked to move by their employer.
Expats ranked Germany as the best country to move to for a better career.
“Germany has the second-best working culture in the world, while almost three quarters (73%) highlight job security as a major perk of working there,” said Goddard.
“It was also rated as the most productive workplace in the world. What’s more interesting is that this productivity seems to be well balanced, with a good proportion of expats saying that they’d seen a positive impact on work life balance.”
Best countries for expat careers
| Rank | Country |
| 1 | Germany |
| 2 | Bahrain |
| 3 | United Kingdom |
| 4 | United Arab Emirates |
| 5 | Switzerland |
| 6 | Sweden |
| 7 | Singapore |
| 8 | USA |
| 9 | Canada |
| 10 | Hong Kong |
| 11 | Russia |
| 12 | China |
| 13 | Saudi Arabia |
| 14 | India |
| 15 | Australia |
| 16 | Poland |
| 17 | New Zealand |
| 18 | Vietnam |
| 19 | Malaysia |
| 20 | France |
| 21 | Taiwan |
| 22 | Indonesia |
| 23 | Ireland |
| 24 | Mexico |
| 25 | Thailand |
| 26 | Brazil |
| 27 | South Africa |
| 28 | Japan |
| 29 | Turkey |
| 30 | Philippines |
| 31 | Spain |
Source: HSBC
