According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the employment rate among Haredi men (ultra-Orthodox Jews) in Israel decreased to 54.3% in the first quarter of 2024 from 56.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The percentage stabilized in the past decade at about 50%, but it began to decline. It increased at the beginning of 2022, and reached its peak in the last quarter, but as we mentioned, it has decreased now.
A source at the Ministry of Finance said, “Just as there was nothing to excite in the previous quarter, there is nothing to excite now.” “Employment of Haredi men is just over 50%, which is really low.”
Dr. Eitan Regev, director of research and executive vice president at the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, is a bit more optimistic. “First of all, the decline is not statistically significant, so it is too early to draw conclusions,” he says. “This does not mean that there was not a decline in this quarter, which could be related to the war. In times of war, the weakest workers were generally the most “This was a small and temporary decline related to the war.”
Indeed, the employment rate among Haredi women also fell in the first quarter by 1.5% to 80.1%, and among Arab men by 0.7% to 75%. In contrast, the employment rate of Arab women increased significantly by 2.1%, but the absolute level was low, reaching 46.1%. The employment rate of non-Haredi Jews remained fairly stable, rising by 0.5% to 86.8% for men, and falling by 0.2% to 82.2% for women.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on May 21, 2024.
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