New: increase of 16.5% in the number of job seekers engaged in programming and application analysis

The unemployment rate in Israel is still very low, but at the same time, the volume of layoffs in high-tech is beginning to affect the numbers of high-tech workers looking for work. According to data released today (Monday) by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), there has been a slight decline in the unemployment rate in the past month, from 3.5% in May to 3.4% in June, which is 146.5 thousand unemployed - a very low figure in Israel. In May there were 150.6 thousand unemployed, which is 3.5% by international definition.
At the same time, the employment service today released new data according to which there has already been an increase among high-tech workers looking for work. This is in contrast to the general trend recorded, of a decrease of 1.5% in the number of job seekers in June in Israel, when their number according to the employment service was 143.1 thousand. A very slight decrease was also observed in the ratio between the number of job seekers and the number of job vacancies, which stood at 0.9 in June - that is, for every 10 job vacancies, 9 job seekers compete.
According to the segmentation of jobseekers in the employment service, between April and June there was a very significant increase of 16.5% in the number of jobseekers engaged in programming and application analysis, a figure that supports recent reports of an increase in the number of layoffs in the high-tech industry. In addition, there was a more significant increase in the number of jobseekers in occupationally demanding occupations - an increase of 6.7% in the number of jobseekers in the practical and technical profession, 4.4% among managers and 3.1% among academics. This is compared with a 3% increase among unskilled workers, 1.7% among full-time industrial and construction owners, 0.8% among machine operators, while in the profession of professional workers in agriculture there was a decrease of 3.9% compared to April.
At the same time, there was a more moderate increase of 7.5% among managers in business services and administrative management, an increase of 7.3% among cashiers and ticket sellers, an increase of 6.8% among employees of the secretariat and 6.3% among public relations workers and similar among unskilled workers. On the other hand, there was a decrease in the construction industries - 6.7% the number of job seekers among skeleton workers in the field of construction, 4.8% among metal panel processors and building maintenance supervisors, and a decrease of 4.7% among mold and welders.
In the second half of June in particular, there was an increase in the unemployment rate in Israel - from 3% in the first half of June to 3.8% in the second half of June. However, half-month data are based on samples smaller than an entire month. In addition, the employment rate excluding temporarily absent from work all week for corona-related reasons reached 62.5% in the second half of June, compared to 62.1% in the first half.
According to data on widespread unemployment, which includes workers who have been laid off since the outbreak of the Corona crisis and those who have been absent due to Corona-related reasons, there were still more than 200,000 unemployed in Israel this June: 203.8 thousand, which is 4.6%, compared to 205.8 thousand, which is 4.7% in May. . According to the definition that determined at the time whether to pay unemployment benefits to those staying in the IDF due to the corona crisis, there were 160.5 thousand unemployed in Israel in June, which is 3.7%, compared to 165.0 thousand in May, which was 3.8%.
In June, there were 6,869,100 people aged 15 and over in Israel who could work according to international definitions. Of these, 4,352,100 women and men participated in the labor force (working or looking for work), which constituted 63.4%. 2,517,100, which is 36.6% of Israelis have not been employed in the labor force. The employment rate excluding temporarily absent from work for reasons related to Corona was 61.0% in June compared to 60.8% in May.
The report shows that during June 27.7 thousand new jobseekers joined, a figure slightly higher than the number of newcomers in May (26.7 thousand), while 115.4 thousand of the total jobseekers who were registered in the employment service in June are those who were also registered in May.
For the first time since the crisis broke out, no city has a job seekers rate higher than 10%. However, even in June, the cities with the highest percentage of job seekers are Arab or mixed cities - when, like in May, Umm al-Fahm continues to lead the list with 9.1%, followed by Rahat with 8.8%. However, in 15 of the leading cities, 8 are Jewish, 5 Arab and 2 mixed.
A 2.2% decrease in the number of job seekers was recorded in the middle ages (35-54) compared to May, while the proportion of young people continues to be higher compared to that recorded before the crisis. At the same time, there was a slight increase in the rate of job demands compared to May and April - 53.8% in June compared with 53.7% in May and 53.2% in April.
During June, there was a slight decrease in the number of job seekers in virtually all population groups, but the most significant was recorded among non-ultra-Orthodox Jews, which stood at about 2%, compared with a marginal decrease of about 0.5% among Arabs.