200,000 register as job seekers since start of lockdown

Employment Service says nearly 1 million out of work — almost a quarter of the workforce — including almost 600,000 on furlough

By ToI Staff 4 October 2020, 12:50 pm

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A woman walks next to closed shops in Jerusalem on October 1, 2020 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The Employment Service announced on Sunday that over 200,000 people have been added to the unemployment rolls since the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah, the start of the current lockdown.

There were 207,191 new jobseekers registered since September 17, of whom 186,958 were furloughed, or placed on unpaid leave.

Of those, 151,436 were registering as unemployed for the second or more time since the start of the spread of the virus in Israel in March.

As of Sunday, 936,712 Israelis were unemployed in total — almost a quarter of the workforce, which numbers some 4 million — including 595,667 who were furloughed.

A man walks through a closed market on the first day of the three-week nationwide lockdown, in Tel Aviv, Sept 18, 2020 (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

During the first outbreak of the virus, in the spring, the unemployment figures issued by the service spiked to over 23 percent, as 800,000 people quickly lost work in Israel’s initial lockdown.

As the outbreak subsided, some people were able to return to work, but later, with infections surging, the government imposed fresh restrictions and the joblessness rate has again spiked.

Many business owners have decried the shutdown as a fatal blow to their livelihoods, which suffered greatly during the first lockdown in March.

Opposition lawmakers on Friday accused the coalition of shuttering small businesses to justify new emergency regulations that grant the government authority to limit the protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Employment Service did not provide a figure for the share of workers who are unemployed.

At the start of the year, before the pandemic, unemployment in Israel was at a record low of under 4%.

Head of Employment Service Rami Garor interviewed on March 20, 2020 (Screen grab/Ynet)

The head of the Employment Service, Rami Garor, last month warned of a prospective “lost generation” of young workers.

“Hundreds of thousands have not yet returned to work since March, including employees in sectors that were badly hurt by the crisis,” Garor said in a statement.

“As we warned, such a long unemployment period is likely to force hundreds of thousands into ‘chronic unemployment,’ to create a lost generation of young people experiencing long-term unemployment, as well as other repercussions,” he said.

“We must do everything to ensure that the return to work after the lockdown is fast, otherwise the ramifications will linger for a long time,” Garor said.