Madrid 5th most desirable city to work in, poll finds

The Spanish capital is viewed as the fifth-best place in the world to move to for work

Beaten out, predictably, by London, New York and Paris, Spanish capital Madrid still managed an impressive 5^th place in a recent poll to find the world’s top destinations for expat workers…

Boston Consulting Group and employment website totaljobs.com conducted a survey of 200,000 people from 188 countries, asking them which city they would most like to work in if they had the opportunity.

Claiming five per cent of the votes, Madrid came in fifth place, behind the aforementioned ‘Big Three’ and Sydney in fourth, and just ahead of hip German capital, Berlin.

Madrid’s intra-Spain rival, Barcelona, was joint-sixth with Berlin, which meant Spain was the only country with two cities inside the top ten. The UK’s only representative in the top 40 was London (sorry, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester).

The interesting aspect about this survey was that it largely ranked cities on people’s perceptions of a place, rather than the reality – which perhaps explains why the world’s three most famous but expensive cities took the top spots.

In terms of liveability, only Berlin can rival Spain’s leading cities, said relocation expert Pierre-Alban Waters in an interview with The Local newspaper.

“Madrid is the best human capital in the world,” he said. “It has the good sides of a capital city – it’s modern, it has culture and more jobs than elsewhere in Spain – minus the stress, expense and unfriendliness of somewhere like Paris or London.

Waters added that, while in places like London or New York a professional is likely to be able to earn more, few cities can offer the unique work/life balance that Madrid boasts. Indeed, much of Spain offers a supremely attractive work/life balance – provided a suitable job can be found.

However, the Spanish economy has perked up tremendously in recent months, and unemployment figures are beginning to slowly fall.

Spain’s Big Two may have performed admirably in the city stakes, but in terms of country-specific data it was the USA that proved the biggest draw, with 42 per cent of professionals eager to move there for work. The UK was second, with 37 per cent, followed by Canada (35 per cent) and Germany (33 per cent). These results point to the attraction of working in an English-speaking country for many would-be expats.

As a potential work destination, Spain ranked eighth, with 26 per cent of the vote, just ahead of Italy and Sweden.