There was a story on NPR about Dubai’s economy today. They echoed many of the sentiments in the NYTimes story, but also pointed out that some of the figures (such as the reports of thousands of cars abandoned at the airport) are exaggerated.
The bottom line is that the situation in Dubai is bad. Foreigners who become unemployed only have a short time to find work before they are forced to leave Dubai, and like Ajayan PV said, lots of projects are on hold and getting shelved. Dubai’s economy revolves largely around tourism, and tourism is hurting across the globe right now.
Interesting that just 6 months ago or so, getting work in Dubai seemed to be all the rage for LA’s here in the US. The firm I worked for was bending over backwards trying to get their name attached to projects going on there, in hopes that they could get more Dubai work in the future. Now, all that work has dried up (for the time being, anyway). It seems that firms counting on Dubai work to keep them afloat during this recession may be now realizing that won’t be happening.
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