Haredi men’s employment growth stalls, income gap with mainstream Israel widens – study
Alongside turmoil over low military draft rates, Israel Democracy Institute report raises alarm over Haredi men’s limited progress integrating into workforce
Mati Wagner is The Times of Israel's religions reporter.
Military draft rates among Haredi men are down, their employment growth has stalled and the income gap between the ultra-Orthodox community and the rest of the population has grown, according to a study published Wednesday by the Israel Democracy Institute.
These trends, if they continue, will have far-reaching ramifications for Israel’s military and economy, said the IDI’s Gilaad Malach, who co-authored the report with Lee Cahaner.
“In order to maintain the same quality of security and economic standard and development, the non-Haredi population will have to carry more of the burden,” Malach said. “And this was apparent in public discourse surrounding military service, but the same is true in the economic field. If you have one population that is less integrated, the other population will have to give more.”
Preliminary data for 2024, based on data provided by the Central Bureau of Statistics, found long-term stagnant employment growth among Haredi men, with a slight dip last year.
Fifty-four percent of Haredi men were employed in the first three quarters of 2024 compared to 55.5% in 2023. After rising significantly in the early 2000s, the numbers have hovered around the 50%-55% range for over a decade, compared to around 85% in the non-Haredi population.
For women, employments rates have risen steadily from 71% in 2015 to 81% in 2023. But preliminary data for the first three quarters of 2024 show a rate of 80%, which may to point to a leveling-off or stagnation. The employment rate for non-Haredi women is 83%.
In January 2024, the researchers noted a “dramatic” 8.5% rise in the number of unmarried yeshiva students aged 18-23 compared to the same month in 2023, which is double the Haredi population growth for the same period and the single largest one-year rise in yeshiva students since 2015.
Malach and Cahaner said the rise might have been the result of the return of Haredi political parties to the governing coalition and the consequent 55% increase in state financial support to Haredi yeshivas.
Between 2013 and 2023, the total number of yeshiva students, both married and unmarried, grew by 83% to 169,366, while the number of Haredi men drafted yearly to the IDF dropped by 36% to 1,266.
Military or national service is, according to Malach and Cahaner, a “marginal phenomenon” for Haredi men.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been fighting a multifront war, the longest in its history, that has put a massive strain on both the standing army and reservists. The Haredi community, seeking to maintain its unique identity through self-segregation, has so far resisted attempts to draft military-aged Haredi men. But a High Court ruling last year that said there is no legal basis to avoid drafting Haredi men has sent the government scrambling to find a solution, with public pressure growing to demand the ultra-Orthodox community share the burden of national service.
Malach said: “Haredi households pay a third of the income tax, national insurance and health insurance payments that non-Haredi households do, even though the average Haredi household is 1.5 times larger.”
The average non-Haredi household spends a monthly NIS 4,496 ($1,200) on taxes and payments to the state, threefold the NIS 1,469 the average Haredi household spends.
“This means others will have to pay more. Now, if they are just 10% of the population that’s one thing. But if they are 15% or 20% of the population that’s something else altogether.”
Israel’s fast-growing Haredi population numbers 1.39 million or 13% of the population, and is expected to make up 16% of the population by 2030. Though Haredi fertility rates are down, they are still more than double the non-Haredi rate, which means Haredim will make up an increasingly larger percentage of society in coming years if fertility rates remain the same.
One in five children enrolled in 1st through 12th grade in Israeli schools are currently Haredi, with the figure at one in four when only examining Jewish schools.
Malach told The Times of Israel that the most important point in the IDI report was the revelation that over the past decade there has been no significant headway in the integration of Haredi men into the mainstream economy.
“True, some new tracks have been established for Haredi men that enable quality results, starting with state elementary schools for Haredim that teach high levels of math, science and English to about 8% of the male Haredi population; and Haredi yeshiva high schools, which are attended by a similar percentage of the Haredi population, who then continue on to academic studies and technological training,” he said.
“But ultimately the vast majority of Haredi men are not enrolled in these tracks, and therefore they receive a little bit of English and math in elementary, and none at all at the high school level, then they go on to kollel or adult educational frameworks [where only Torah is taught], and finally when they finish they end up earning just 49% of [the wages of] non-Haredim because they lack the training. ”
In the 2023-24 academic year, there were 17,400 Haredi students enrolled in institutions of higher education, a rise of 4% compared to the previous year and representing 5% of the total number of students in higher education.
Haredim tend to learn technological occupations at lower rates than the non-Haredi population, Malach and Cahener said. Haredi men lack a math and science background and have less access to institutes of higher learning, while women face cultural barriers preventing them from availing themselves of higher learning institutes that teach science and engineering.
The average Haredi household had a monthly income of NIS 14,816 ($4,000), just 67% of the average non-Haredi household, and spent NIS 15,190 ($4,140), resulting in a net deficit of NIS 400 per month, according to 2022 data, which was funded by either an outstanding loan or overdraft. The discrepancy between income and expenses might also be the result of undeclared income.
The average Haredi man earns a gross income of NIS 9,929 ($2,700) a month, less than half of his non-Haredi counterpart, who on average earns NIS 20,464 ($5,580). The average Haredi woman earns NIS 8,617 ($2,350) a month, 67% of the NIS 13,057 ($3,560) the average non-Haredi woman earns.
Haredi men’s lack of math, science and English leads to significantly lower income compared to non-Haredi men, the researchers said. Haredi women, in contrast, who do receive education in secular subjects, are nevertheless less likely to go on to higher education, which negatively impacts their income levels.
Thirty percent of Haredi men work in education compared to 4.5% of non-Haredi men, while just 3.5% work in tech, compared to 20% of non-Haredi men. Forty percent of Haredi women work in education compared to 16% of non-Haredi women, and 4.5% of Haredi women work in tech, compared to 9% of non-Haredi women.
Another factor negatively impacting income levels for both men and women is the fact they tend to work fewer hours per week on average.
Reflecting a strong ethos of home ownership, 78% of Haredim own their own homes, with or without a mortgage, compared to 73% among non-Haredim. And larger percentages of Haredim are purchasing homes in less central areas where prices are lower.
“There is a slight rise in the standard of living of Haredim as reflected in larger percentages of Haredi house and car ownership and a decrease in poverty levels and a rise in internet use,” said Malach and Cahener.
“This rise is primarily the result of higher levels of employment among Haredi women. At the same time, many Haredi households are financially unstable and the poverty rate among Haredim is still high.”
