Finance Minister Israel Katz in an interview with the Ynet studio
(Photo: Nitzan Dror, Avi Chai)
There was a significant decrease in the number of unemployed in November compared with the second month of closure, October, but the announcement of a third closure is expected to restore the unemployment rate in Israel to its former level within days. Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics published today (Monday) show that the number of employed people who were temporarily absent from work due to causes related to the corona virus and also the unemployed for other reasons dropped to 494.8 thousand in November, which is 12.1%. This is after in the month of closure, October, their number was 742.1 thousand, which is 18.2%.
Holon Employment Bureau
(Photo: Kobi Cuenx)
Meanwhile, the wider unemployment rate according to the CBS, which includes those who do not participate in the labor force, who are fired and stay in the Knesset for all reasons, was 14.3%, which is 599.3 thousand workers. This is compared to 845.5 thousand, which is 20.3% in October. This is a decrease of almost a quarter of a million unemployed within one month, which has not been recorded since leaving the first quarantine in the spring of this year.
The data show that in the narrow sector of the unemployed who are not related to the corona crisis, there was actually a slight increase, from 199.4 thousand in October, which is 4.9%, to 205.9 thousand in November, which is exactly 5%.
Meanwhile, as mentioned, the unemployment rate in Israel in November is still much higher than the rate of 7.5% and below, which could lead to the cessation of unemployment benefits for those fired and those on unpaid vacations, which have long passed the normal periods that entitle them to unemployment benefits.
The CBS data also show that in the second half of November alone, the unemployment rate increased for reasons not directly related to Corona from 5.1% in the first half of the month (205.8 thousand unemployed) to 5.4% (213.0 thousand unemployed).
The proportion of employed persons who were absent from work due to reasons related to the corona virus plus the unemployed for other reasons decreased in the second half of November to 477.6 thousand workers, which is 12%, compared to 507.8 thousand workers, which is 12.6%, in the first half of November.
The rate of those who stopped working due to dismissal or closure of the workplace from March, plus the employed who were temporarily absent from work due to the Corona virus and the unemployed for other reasons, decreased in the second half of November to 597.3 thousand workers, which is 14.6%, compared to 603.1 thousand workers, who are also Yes 14.6%, in the first half of last month.
In November, there were 6,663,800 people in Israel aged 15 and over who could work. Of these, only 4,077,600 men and women were included in the labor force, which is 61.2%. In contrast, 2,586,200, which is 38.8%, were not included in the labor force because they did not look for work at all.
In November, there were 3,871,700 employed in Israel, which is 95% of the labor force, and 205,900 unemployed, which is 5%, who sought work and did not find it. 104,500 workers have stopped working due to layoffs or closure of the workplace since the spread of the corona virus in Israel in March 2020.
Watch: Business owners fear they will not be able to meet another closure
(Photo: Gil Yohanan, Meshi Ben Ami)
In an interview with the Ynet studio today (Monday), Dedi Musari and Dafna, the veteran owners of a tobacco store in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, spoke about their fear that they would not be able to meet another closure.
“We have nothing to do with it. We are at the bottom. From here there is nowhere to go down anymore,” they said. “Another closure will be a fall, a big fall for us and everyone. Everyone talks but no one helps. No one lets you raise your head. People here pay crazy rents. We keep paying rents, we keep paying all the taxes, we fail. Work like we worked before. So it’s true that the Mahane Yehuda market everyone shows once a weekend that was a holiday so show it full, but now look at all the shops. Look at a few people. So it’s true that the weekend was nice, it was wrong “But people have come to a terrible economic situation here and are not talking about it.”
You see the vaccines, is there optimism?
“Sure. But it will take time, it will take two to three months until it gives the right effect.”
Meanwhile, the manufacturers demonstrated today at the entrance to the Ministry of Finance in protest of what they called “thwarting a real preference of the country’s products in the midst of a crisis by the Ministry of Finance, which takes care of work in Turkey and not in Israel.” As part of the demonstration, they distributed as a protest act the delight of lokum, the traditional Turkish candy, on the side of a flyer in which the Turkish government thanked, “The Turkish government would like to thank you for the thousands of new jobs you provided its citizens, while a million Israelis do not work.”
The president of the Manufacturers’ Association, Dr. Ron Tomer, said, “I hope that while they are eating from the smell of lokum, the Ministry of Finance and the government will think about working to create jobs in Turkey instead of in the periphery.”
The manufacturers explained that the move comes at the height of a severe unemployment crisis, and opposition to expanding the preference for blue-and-white produce in the procurement of government bodies and authorities, a move that would have created tens of thousands of jobs and increased growth.