The unemployment rate in Israel increased slightly in July - but it is still low: 3.7%

The unemployment rate in Israel increased slightly in July, but it is still low: from the data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), it appears that the narrow unemployment rate increased in July to 3.7%, which is 159.5 thousand people, compared to a rate of 3.4% measured in June, which is 146.5 A thousand job seekers.
Meanwhile, the employment rate also decreased, from 61.2% in the previous month to 60.9%, which is 4,195,800 employed. However, the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate are still lower than on the eve of the Corona crisis at the beginning of 2020.
The data also shows that the unemployment rate of the employed who were temporarily absent from their jobs, together with the unemployed, rose to 4.0% (175.5 thousand) compared to 3.7% (160.5 thousand) in June.
According to the calculation of the number of those who did not participate in the labor force due to layoffs or closure of the workplace from March 2020 (the beginning of the corona crisis in Israel) together with those temporarily absent from their work and the unemployed, in July there were 214.7 thousand men and women (4.9%) compared to 203.8 thousand in June (4.6 %).
In addition, this month the Central Bureau of Statistics published for the first time a new figure, called "those who despair of looking for work" - these are defined according to the Central Bureau of Statistics as those 15 years of age or older who are not in the weekly labor force, but were interested in working, could have started working in the specified week if they had been offered Suitable work ("available for work") and looked for work in the 12 months preceding their job in the survey, except for the four weeks preceding their job in the survey, for the following reasons: believed that there was no suitable job for them in their profession or area of ​​residence in terms of salary, working hours or interest in work; lack of experience or Lack of appropriate training; language difficulties; inappropriate age (too young or too old).
7,800 job seekers were defined as giving up (0.3%). The rate of those who despair of looking for work in addition to the others who are not employed for any reason increased in July to 5% (221.2 thousand) compared to 4.8% (213.0 thousand) in June. 343,600 Israelis, which is 8.2%, were temporarily absent from work (mainly due to corona isolation) during the week of the survey.
In total, there were 6,885,700 people aged 15 and over in Israel in July of this year, who according to international definitions could work. Of these, 4,355,200 men and women were in the labor force (worked or looking for work) and 2,530,400 Israelis did not participate in the labor force (neither worked nor looked for work).
In the past two and a quarter years, since the outbreak of the corona virus in March 2020, the CBS has changed the features of the regular reports on the unemployment rate in Israel, and updated twice a month on the unemployment situation in the economy. Last month, it announced that it would return to reporting the unemployment rate only on a monthly basis, and now this is the first monthly publication since Two and a quarter years without bi-weekly reports.
Until this coming December, the CBS will continue to report separately on all those who were fired from March 2020 only due to the spread of the corona virus. This section will be replaced by a new permanent section in which the CBS will report separately on all those who were fired in the two years preceding the publication of the unemployment report and who did not find work during this period . It would be interesting, for example, to follow workers in certain sectors in the future, such as in the high-tech industry, for example, which recently fell into a crisis that caused layoffs, while the recruitment of workers in the industry was greatly reduced.