Israel Employment Service Report Excerpts: May 2020 Unemployment

On a monthly basis, the Israel Employment Service releases reports on national unemployment rates. Below are excerpts from the report relevant to Arab society.

View the May 2020 excerpts as a PDF here. 

View the IES March/April report on Jewish and Arab unemployment, here.

As previously reported, by the IES, following the Corona crisis the national unemployment rates climbed to the highest numbers since the establishment of Israel (Hebrew). May saw an opening increase in unemployment rising to 27.5%(1,165,000 total registrants) and decreasing to 23.5% by the end of the month. Over the month, 35,400 Israelis became newly unemployed (‘jobseekers’) and 206,500 reported returning to work. The report then compared rates among different religious backgrounds, professions and locales:

• Religion: 9% of Muslim, Christian and Druze Israelis returned to work versus 20% of Jewish citizens (figure 1 below).

• Profession: The highest return rates overall were registered in the medical and health professions (26.4%), accounting and finance (25.3%), law (25%), and education (24.8%). The lowest return rates were registered in the tourism sector (6.7%) media and entertainment (9.2%), and aeronautics and seafaring (9.1%).
• Locale: The unemployment rate in Nazareth (ranked fifth among cities with the highest unemployment rate) was 26.7% in May compared to 33% in April; Umm al-Fahm (ranked eight in highest unemployment) sawa rate of 25.2% versus 32% in April. The mixed cities of Ramle and Lod are also at the top of this ranking, both with unemployment rates of 22.9%. Districts with high return rates include the Center (20%), followed by Haifa (18.6%) and Tel Aviv (18.4%). The North District, the only District in Israel with a non-Jewish majority (39% Muslim, 8% Druze and 7% Christian, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics report from 2018), registered the lowest return rate (14.6%).