Expats heading home?

A growing number of expat workers are booking one-way tickets home, suggesting that increasing redundancies and possibility of a pay cut is tainting the UAE's appeal.

UAE airlines told the Kuwait News Agency that half the tickets booked in 2009 were one-way - out of the country.

So far, redundancies in the financial services sector in the UAE have been comparatively few. International banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Jeffries have scaled back their Dubai operations.

Meanwhile local players like Shuaa Capital, Mashreqbank, First Gulf Bank, Noor Islamic Bank, and Commercial Bank of Dubai have all made redundancies.

And some sovereign wealth funds - often a popular destination for expat expertise - have chopped their teams this year.

However, there's the suggestion that some firms which have been making job cuts may have been doing so under the radar.

Some expats aren't giving up on the country entirely, though - the airlines say some are booking one-way tickets for their families, and two-way tickers for themselves, suggesting they may have one-eye on making a return if the economic situation improves.