I've been an expat contractor for Chevron internationally for almost 25 years.
I always took home twice the salary that my Chevron supervisor did, and I never had to do anybody's PMP, even though many company staff had a dotted line reporting to me.
I worked through a body shop contractor, who always provided me with great health insurance and managed my taxes, and I used the significant cash inflow to manage my own retirement investments.
Better security going staff? I don't think so. I'm still working today while many of my CVX expat colleagues are being "left standing" with nowhere to go. Many that I know have been already cut, some got the axe today, some will be gone soon.
So why am I still here? Because I'm just a line item on somebody's budget, not their headcount, at a simple 15% markup over my salary.
Meanwhile, one western CVX expat costs the company about 1.3 million USD/year, all in, depending on their PSG, how the host country treats their taxes, and how many kids they have that need private schooling.
For those Catholic rabbits with five or six kids, that sh-- gets pretty expensive, pretty quick. And with all their vacations, R&Rs, maternal and paternal leave, bereavements, and other paid "leaves", they only actually "work" about 150 days in a year, if that much, vs. my 240. Even when they are at work, company admin overhead eats up about one third of their time. So, yeah, I figure they can get about 3 or 4 of me for every one of those company PowerPoint cowboys.