Something’s missing from this city’s freeways. The unremitting caravan of transport trucks on Emirates road, a major artery connecting the world’s largest manmade port in nearby Jebel Ali to many of the country’s 3,000-plus construction sites, has been interrupted. And encounters with the once ubiquitous white Tata bus, bars on its windows, ferrying scores of migrant laborers to and from work, have become sporadic.

It’s impossible to say how many workers have lost their jobs here since the financial crisis and global recession made their unwelcome presence felt along the Gulf. But if you want to know how the UAE’s workers are faring, the real estate industry is a good place to start. According to numbers from the International Monetary Fund and SICO Research, in 2007, half of the UAE’s workforce held jobs either in construction or in real estate.

Over the last few months, a number of major contractors, realty firms and developers have admitted to instituting “retrenchments” and “redundancies” – including Dubai’s two big government-affiliated master developers. Emaar Properties, creator of the 800-meter Burj Dubai skyscraper, has said it will adjust its recruitment strategy to suit the worsening business climate. Nakheel Properties, developer of outlandish projects as the palm- and world-shaped islands, has cut at least 500 personnel so far. And Dubai Properties Group, owned by Dubai’s ruler, says it has slashed 600 positions.

Such announcements have focused on middle- and upper-level staff. But it would be naive to think that the 700,000 or so migrant construction workers at the lower end of the job market, who are piecing together half-formed buildings all over the seven emirates, will be unaffected by a wave of layoffs higher up the chain of command.

Mark Blanksby, a lawyer at Clyde & Co.’s construction practice in Dubai, says the newly jobless span the pay scale. “I know of a large number of people being laid off at all levels” he says, “from laborers up to senior executives.”

Blanksby has also been fielding a growing number of calls from developers and contractors paralyzed by the credit crunch, suggesting the emirate’s troubled real estate industry may continue deteriorating. “It’s going to be a very harsh six months,” he adds, “with a lot of contractors realizing that the owners they have entered into contracts with lack the funding to pay for their projects.”

Real estate isn’t the only area feeling the weight of a global crisis. The local financial and banking sectors, among others, have been dispatching employees. And as segments of the emirate’s economy stumble, workers across the job market are starting to worry that they’ll get caught up in the downturn and sent packing.

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