Ben Ryan: “A dramatic gulf in economic activity separated countries with the highest and lowest percentages of their populations working full time for an employer in 2014. The 10 countries with the highest Payroll to Population (P2P) rates in 2014 all had P2P rates of 44% or more, with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates at the top. Meanwhile, the countries with the lowest P2P rates — most of them in sub-Saharan Africa — ranged from 7% to just 3%…Regionally, Northern America continued to have the highest percentage of adults working full time for an employer in 2014, at 44%, and sub-Saharan Africa continued to have the lowest regional rate at 11%. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) had the second-lowest rate (18%), despite two countries in that region ranking at the top of the list in 2014: Qatar at 62% and the United Arab Emirates at 61%. The populations in these two countries, along with others in the Persian Gulf region, include large percentages of expatriates who live in the country just to work — which contributes to their higher P2P rates.”