Haredi men’s integration into the workforce slows as government payouts rise
Israel Democracy Institute study suggests ultra-Orthodox men lacking a modern education struggle to earn enough money in job market to make employment worthwhile
Ultra-Orthodox integration into the workforce slowed among men in years when government subsidies increased, a study has found.
According to the report released Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, while Haredi integration into the Israeli mainstream continued apace by some measures, employment among ultra-Orthodox men, which has been on the rise over the past decade, stagnated after the formation of the 2015 government, which restored some of the subsidies cut for non-working Haredi yeshiva students.
Haredi men had a 52 percent employment rate in 2015, and a slightly lower 51% in 2018. Non-Haredi Israeli Jewish men have a far higher 87% employment rate.
Haredi women, meanwhile, continued the trend of increasing workforce participation in those years, rising from 71% employment to 76% between 2015 and 2018 — almost at the 83% rate of non-Haredi Jewish women.
“We are witnessing the continued integration of members of ultra-Orthodox society into the Israeli mainstream as reflected in women’s participation in the workforce and in rising income levels, along with some degree of adoption of a middle-class lifestyle,” said IDI researchers Gilad Malach and Lee Cahaner in a statement.
Yet, “at the same time, the integration of ultra-Orthodox men into higher education frameworks and into the labor force has substantially slowed. This is apparently due to lack of the economic incentives that had previously spurred movement in this direction and the reinstitution of government allowances that discourage obtaining a higher education or joining the workforce,” they wrote.
The data gave clear indications that economic incentives may be driving the slowing of Haredi integration into the workforce.
Haredi men earn 68% of the pay of other Jewish men for an hour’s work, in large part because they do not have the educational background to find work in high-paying engineering and other jobs. Just 9% of ultra-Orthodox university students go into engineering fields, compared to 21% of other Jewish students.
That helps explain why government payouts for yeshiva study are so attractive, since Haredi men lacking basic skills required in a modern workforce cannot earn as much as non-Haredi counterparts in the job market.
Thus, while the number of married Haredi men engaged in full-time religious studies in a “kollel,” or seminary for married men, declined steadily until 2015 — dropping from 70,798 in 2012 to 66,228 in 2014, it began rising year-on-year in 2015, reaching 85,965 by 2018.
The study also noted multiple measures that indicated Haredi integration into modern life continues apace.
Income of Haredi households rose 10% in 2017, twice as fast as the 5% among other Jewish households. That rise helped narrow the still-significant 7,000-shekel-a-month gap between the two categories, with Haredi monthly household income hitting NIS 15,015 ($4,300) in pretax income that year, compared to NIS 22,190 ($6,300) for non-Haredi Jewish households.
Similarly, nearly half, or 49%, of Haredi adults now report they use the internet, once a taboo in large parts of the community and a dramatic spike from just 28% in 2008.
The rate of Israeli Haredim who travel abroad also rose from 12% in 2013-14 to 17% last year, still a long way behind the 52% rate among other Jewish Israelis.
