Unemployment in Israel: August data gives mixed picture

• Author: ZEV STUB
• Published date: 28 September 2021

On Sunday, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported that the broad unemployment rate reached 7.8% in the second half of August, an improvement from 8.1% in the first half of the month, but worse than the 7.6% it reported for the second half of July.

The unemployment rate for the two-week period, not including those on unpaid leave or those seeking work since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, increased to 5.6%, from 5.3% in the first half of August. There were some 330,000 job seekers at the end of August, compared to 323,000 job seekers as of the end of July.

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Meanwhile, there are plenty of job openings available. Last week, CBS reported that there were 134,237 job vacancies available in Israel, several thousand more than a month earlier. Happily, the number of job vacancies in the food and hospitality sector, one of the hardest-hit areas of the economy, declined for the first time in a year.

However, many job seekers have not been in a hurry to take new work. Some of the reasons may be seasonal, with people preferring to wait to start a new job until after the holidays, or until rising coronavirus infection rates subside somewhat. However, economists fear that some parts of society may have gotten stuck in a cycle of chronic unemployment.

Israel's unemployment rate reached as high as...