by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel's unemployment rate has climbed to over 23 percent by Monday, as the impact of the coronavirus looms larger in the country.

Before the outbreak of the global crisis, Israel's economy was in a good position, where the unemployment had remained at fewer than four percent. Now with tightened restrictions aimed at slowing down the spread of the virus, more than 750,000 have registered as jobless.

The majority of them are workers who have been sent on unpaid leave. While it is believed the majority of those on unpaid leave will be able to return to their jobs once the crisis is over, there is no certainty.

So far, the government has announced it will offer a generous package of benefits for the market, small businesses and the unemployed. But details of the program have yet been published. According to the Israeli media, the size of the package will be around 22 billion U.S. dollars.

But because the economic blow came at a time when Israel was doing well financially, recovery will probably be speedier. The Bank of Israel estimates that the unemployment rate at the end of 2020 will drop to seven percent.

According to the International Labor Organization, 25 million people around the world could be unemployed as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent measures to curb it.

On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet was supposed to convene over both the stimulus and recovery package as well as further restrictions. The meeting did not take place. Reports on Israeli news outlets suggested a disagreement between health officials who wanted a complete lockdown on the country and financial officials who feared such measures would deal a deadly blow to the economy.

"We must re-open the economy in a few weeks," said Elise Brezis, head of the Aharon Meir Center for Economic Policy at Bar-Ilan University.

"Israel cannot maintain the level of quarantine for so long as China did. The Israeli economy is not as centralized. The private sector in Israel has greater weight in its economy," she explained.

Since the outbreak in Israel, over 4,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 with 16 deaths from the virus.

Currently, Israelis are required to stay home except for a few extraordinary cases, while restaurants and certain shops are only allowed to make deliveries.

Many workers have been given the option to work from home. Lagging behind other countries, Israel is much lower in labor productivity for complicated reasons.

"The world was already experiencing change due to automation and globalization that also leads to exponential change, but the rate of the change due to the coronavirus is greater," said Keren Litani, a researcher and lecturer on the future world of work.

"The rate of disruption the virus creates is significant. Many professions crashed at once. The coronavirus has a faster impact than thinking machines have," Litani added.

For Brezis, the Israeli professor, the major change will be in the international system after the pandemic recedes.

"What is happening will accelerate the change. It shows that the U.S. hegemony is gone," she told Xinhua. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)