A month since easing of the closure began No recovery in the labor market- 1.15 million job seekers

A month has passed since the easing of the closure began, but the numbers in the labor market have not yet shown recovery. At the height of the crisis, more than a million and 150,000 jobseekers were registered at the Employment Service at the end of April.
The updated Employment Service figures show that since the release of the economy after the Passover began, on April 19, 2020, 94,000 new jobseekers have registered, while the number of reported to the Employment Service for returning to work or eliminating ISA stands at 86,000. Job seekers continue to grow.
The Employment Service emphasizes that this is partial data, since not everyone who returned to work reported it, but agree that the trend is indeed worrying.
Social security data also indicate a similar trend, according to which during the same period, only 135,000 civilians returned from the Labor Force to the workforce.
The big concern is that as time goes on and people stay out of the employment cycle, the further they move away from it. Dr. Gal Zohar, director of the Employment Service Research and Policy Unit, believes that "some people will take a few months to return to the employment market. We have been in this crisis for two months, and as time goes on, the harder it is to bring people back to the market. "
Zohar says that "We estimate that the unemployment rate will remain double-digit by the end of the year. If it is less, we will be very happy. The problem is that as time goes on, the depth of unemployment increases, as the eligibility period becomes shorter." He adds that the biggest problem for them right now is the lack of clarity on the picture of unemployment in Israel, which does not make it possible to identify precisely the audiences who need assistance and guidance.
According to Zohar, the time dimension and certainty about returning to work are critical, but he points to another critical dimension - the accumulation of skills to fit the rapidly changing future job market. "On the one hand, people need to be close to the labor market, but on the other they need to strengthen the skills of the workers. These are two things that need to happen at the same time. Israel is not high on skills, which is a necessity for the changing labor market, which includes much more automation and digitization. It is a critical component, because if I know that in two or three months I will be back to work, I can take the time to strengthen my skills. "
Meanwhile, representatives of the NGOs are already knocking on the door of new Finance Minister Israel Katz, presenting to him the problems that exist in the Treasury's aid program for the self-employed. This plan has been upgraded, modified, improved, renovated - but some of the deficiencies remain, and many of the self-employed are excluded Of the state.