Articles by February, 2022

Matthias Korman, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), arrived at a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem today and presented a presentation to the Prime Minister and government ministers on the impact of the corona on the Israeli economy. In the presentation, data were presented to the ministers, according to which the increase in employment in the past year was higher than the average of the other OECD countries. So while the employment rate for ages 25-64 in Israel is about 75%, the average in the member states of the organization is about 70%....

The Knesset's Economics Committee on Tuesday discussed the severe damage to the self-employed during the Omicron wave, with the Ministry of Finance refusing to approve a compensation plan for the self-employed at this stage. The meeting is also attended by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman. He said, "Within two weeks we will agree on a safety net for the self-employed. It will probably also involve changes in legislation. We do not intend to abandon anyone. Anyone who needs assistance will receive assistance." The finance minister explained that on February 25, after the business...

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is promoting the abolition of most corona restrictions by early next month. Bennett sought to examine the issue of removing the restrictions added in the omicron wave in an initial consultation that had already taken place, in which it was decided that the removal of all restrictions should be gradually examined. In a discussion held by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday evening, a list of recommendations was formulated for changes in the guidelines that will be presented to Bennett tomorrow: cancel the corona test abroad before returning to Israel, and...

The Minister of Transportation, Merav Michaeli, ordered the addition of bus stops at the entrances to ten Bedouin localities in the Negev, some of which are illegally recognized. Notice of the addition of the stations was sent to the Coalition Labor Party's partner, the RAAM Party. Two bus stops have recently been set up at the entrance to the new Bedouin settlement, Abda, located on Road 40 north of Mitzpe Ramon. The settlement has recently received official recognition from the state, as part of the coalition agreement with RAAM. The other stations will be built mostly, at the entrance...

The escalation in relations between Russia and Ukraine and estimates that the situation could explode in the coming days, prompted this week the Israeli high-tech companies and the manpower companies that work with them, which together employ about 15,000 workers in Ukraine. The companies were organized ahead of time for temporary evacuation of workers and their families within the country (from east and south to west); For their transfer to neighboring countries such as Poland and Bulgaria; As well as finding alternative workspaces in case of need and providing satellite internet in case...

132,275 Israelis were diagnosed last week as positive for Corona, 10,354 of them yesterday (Saturday). For comparison, in the week between February 6 and 12, 240,756 positive for the virus were diagnosed in Israel, a decrease of about 45%. If the downward trend continues at a similar pace, it is likely that in the coming days less than 10,000 positive viruses will be diagnosed in Israel in the next few days. At the same time, the coefficient of infection has remained stable over the past three days and stands at 0.67 - indicating a decline in the epidemic. Data from the Ministry of Health...

The Israeli high-tech industry is very fond of saying that there is a shortage of workers. Here comes the Central Bureau of Statistics trying to put things in order: 14,000 software developers are missing. However, this number expresses only a small part of the story. To think that only 14,000 workers are missing in high-tech is a form of thinking that is appropriate for a governmental and public body and not for an industry that is moving fast and not waiting for initiatives from the state

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Orit Farkash HaCohen, announced that she has issued a policy directive to the Innovation Authority, the main point of which is to set strict goals for significantly increasing the representation of ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, women, juniors and Israeli high-tech periphery. According to the Minister, this is a program based on comprehensive economic work carried out in recent months by the Ministry of Innovation, led by the Director General of the Ministry of Innovation, the Deputy CEO, Task Company and in collaboration with the Innovation...

The number of job seekers is declining, and is very close to the levels recorded on the eve of the Corona crisis. This is according to the Employment Service report for January 2022 published on Tuesday. According to the report, in January the number of jobseekers active in the employment service was 168.8 thousand, very close to 164 thousand registered in February 2020. In fact, this is the lowest number since The outbreak of the crisis. The data of the Employment Service actually correspond with the Central Bureau of Statistics reports regarding January, according to which in January the...

The Economics Committee approved on second and third reading the amendment to the Traffic Ordinance, which would allow experiments in autonomous cars without having an operator in the vehicle. According to the Ministry of Transportation, this will allow the experiments to start this year. The number of vehicles in the experiments will be limited to 500, according to the proposal of the chairman of the Economics Committee, MK Michael Bitton (blue and white). The committee decided that many regulations would become an addition to the bill, to allow for their speedy enactment. Transport...