942,678 jobseekers are registered with the employment service - 600 thousand are on unpaid leave

600,000 Israelis on unpaid leave. This is according to data from the Employment Service published on Monday. Since September 17, the day before New Year's Eve and the entry of restrictions, 213,828 jobseekers have been registered in the employment service - of which 192,223 are due to unpaid leave and 21,605 for other reasons.
Of the job seekers enrolled since that date, for 154,680 this is the second or more enrollment since the start of the corona crisis in the bitter month (72% of enrollees in this wave). Currently, 942,678 jobseekers are registered with the employment service, of which 600,485 are on unpaid leave.
According to Rami Graur, CEO of the Employment Service, “Despite the decline in enrollees today compared to the last two weeks, the trend is still worrying, because there is no certainty in the economy about the return to routine horizon, especially when it comes to second closure and morbidity is still high. As we have learned in the wake of the first wave, when businesses close or change their operations, many Knesset members gradually become laid off, and as we have pointed out in detailed reports, the longer people are out of the workforce, the less likely they are to return.
He added that "urgent steps are needed to ensure that return to work from quarantine is as quick as possible, to encourage employee retention even in an ongoing crisis and that human capital in Israel will not be eroded during this period but will develop through professional training and development of employment skills."

The effects of the Corona virus on the employment market in Israel were mainly reflected in the temporary absence from work due to the closure of some workplaces, and in the inability to look for work in the new situation. At the end of March the restrictions imposed caused a temporary absence from work of many employed persons (unpaid leave, paid leave and more); In April, the scope of the phenomenon increased due to the tightening of restrictions and Passover. With the easing of restrictions in May, the number of temporarily absent from work also decreased, but at the same time there was an increase in the rate of the unemployed.
As of August, the unemployment rate stands at 5.4% of the labor force; The percentage of non-employed persons who stopped working due to dismissal or closure of the workplace from March 2020, plus the employed who are temporarily absent from work all week due to reasons related to the Corona virus and the unemployed - stands at 11.2%.
In August 2020, there were approximately 58.7 thousand job vacancies, compared with 53.1 in July. The number of job vacancies in August 2020 reflects a decrease of 41% compared to August 2019 (99,836 thousand job vacancies).
About six months after the crisis broke out, 6.4% of workers are still on unpaid leave. In the hotel services industry and in the food and beverage services industries (including restaurants and food stalls), unpaid vacation rates were recorded at a particularly high rate - about 20% and about 19%, respectively. About 11.5% of all workers have been laid off since the beginning of the corona crisis, an increase of 3.9% compared to the figure recorded in the previous month (7.6%). At the same time, the companies recruited 4.9% of new employees, who, among other things, replaced dismissed employees. 19% of the workers staying in the Knesset are not interested in returning to work.
19% of businesses report that they will not be able to continue operating for another three months under the current conditions in the economy. 78.5% of businesses report moderate damage of up to 25% in August revenue (including about 24% of businesses that reported no damage to their revenue). This is a significant improvement over the July revenue hit rate, where 44.1% of businesses reported a moderate hit rate of up to 25% (and 18% reported no revenue hit at all). About 70% of the businesses in the food and beverage services industry and in the hotel industry received government assistance.
Within all the chaos that has been created one can find a number of positive points. As of the end of July, it is not possible to indicate significant excess mortality in Israel, despite the increase in the number of deaths from Corona and in some of the total deaths. In the first months of the year mortality was particularly low, but from the beginning of the plague and especially in April to July, the extent of mortality was similar to previous years. Thus, since the beginning of the year, 27,550 residents have died in Israel, similar to 2019, when mortality from the corona is only 3% of the total deaths. It should be noted that mortality from the virus in Israel is relatively low compared to the rest of the world.
Also, in July 2020 there was a 25.1% decrease in the number of casualties in road accidents compared to July 2019, and in the number of fatalities there was a decrease of 6.1%. The number of fatal accidents in July 2020 increased by 3.6% compared to last July.
In January-July, the number of transfers to human life was 665, compared with 478 in the corresponding period last year. At the same time, the number of cases opened by the Israel Police decreased by 8.6% compared to the previous year, and stands at 164,568. Despite the severe crisis and the closure of the sky in January-July 2020, 9,956 new immigrants arrived in Israel.
Data from the national accounts published today show that gross domestic product fell in the second quarter by 29% on an annualized basis compared with the previous quarter, and by 8.2% on a quarterly basis. This decrease joins a decrease of 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020. Despite a significant decrease in GDP, Israel is in 8th place out of 19 OECD countries in the volume of the decrease (the larger the decrease, the lower the country is, db).
Private consumption expenditure that was most significantly affected by the corona crisis decreased by 44.3% in the second quarter of 2020 (13.6% on a quarterly basis), following a decrease of 23.8% (6.6% on a quarterly basis) in the first quarter. Private consumption per capita decreased by 45.2% (14% on a quarterly basis). The decrease in private consumption expenditure per capita in the second quarter of 2020 reflects a decrease of 45.1%. Public consumption expenditure increased by 26% (5.9% on a quarterly basis) in the second quarter of 2020. Overall, in the first half of the year, public consumption decreased by 1.4% on an annual basis compared with the previous half.
Expenditure on civilian consumption increased by 9.3%, while net purchases increased by 81.1% on an annualized basis (16.0% on a quarterly basis) and reflects, among other things, the government's extraordinary expenditures for medical supplies.
Business product after deducting housing services and public sector product decreased in the second quarter of 2020 by 33.7% (9.8% on a quarterly basis), after a decrease of 8.0% on an annual basis in the first quarter of 2020. In the first half of the year, business product decreased by 12.0% On an annual basis compared to the second half of 2019. Imports of goods and services decreased in the second quarter of the year by 39.5% on an annual basis.