Four of the five cities in which the rate of unemployment claimants higher than 10% are Arabs

According to data from the Employment Service published Monday, four of the five only cities in which the rate of unemployment claimants higher than 10% is registered are Arabs, and one of them is mixed. These are the cities of Umm al-Fahm (with an unemployment rate of 17.8% in July), Rahat (17.3%), Nazareth (12.9%) and Shefar'am (10.5%). The mixed city of Acre is the fifth city with a unemployment rate higher than 10% - with 12.7%.
Only in three cities was there a decrease in the number of job seekers at a rate of less than 20% - two of them Arabs (Umm al-Fahm with 7.5% and Rahat with 19.4%) and one of them mixed (Acre with 13.1%). For comparison, in Modiin there was a decrease of 43.2% in the number of job seekers, in Herzliya of 48.5% and in Tel Aviv of 54.5%.
Despite the general decrease in the number of unemployment claimants in all sectors, it can be seen from the employment service data that the stronger the group socio-economically, the more significant the rate of decrease in the number of unemployment claimants in its vicinity, and vice versa.
The cessation of unemployment benefits for unpaid workers aged 45 and under at the end of June led to a significant decrease in the number of unemployment claimants during July - the Employment Service reports a 35.1% decrease in the number of unemployment claimants: from 449,000 at the end of June to 291,000 at the end of July. The highest decline since the outbreak of the corona crisis.
However, it should be noted that, as expected, the rate of return to work is relatively slow relative to the decline in the number of job seekers and the number of job vacancies remains high, and in fact the highest in the last decade. According to the latest CBS data published, in the second half of July there were 322,900 unemployed - more than 30,000 over the number of unemployment claimants, as some of the unemployed were not eligible for assistance in July due to the cessation of the sickness model.
However, the employment service believes that the relatively low rate of return to work may be affected by the summer season and the upcoming holiday season, which is characterized as a "waiting period" in which even jobseekers who are left without unemployment benefits are in no hurry to return to work. Therefore, it is too early to comment on the significance of the relatively low rate of return to work.
The Employment Service also notes that in parallel with the significant decline in the number of unemployment claimants in July, there was a large increase in the number of those who have difficulty returning to work and are looking for an alternative to unemployment benefits in the form of social benefits.
According to a report by the National Insurance Institute last week, the number of applications for income support benefits in July increased by about 80% and stood at more than 9,000 applications compared to about 5,000 in June and 3,800 in May. The Employment Service believes that in the coming months an increase in the rate of income support claimants is expected, most of whom will have low work skills who will have difficulty returning to the labor force and will need social benefits.
The rate of unemployment seekers in Arab cities, which remains high, as mentioned, and also in the distribution of unemployment seekers by population sectors: The rate of Jewish jobseekers who are not ultra-Orthodox, and are considered the strongest group in the Israeli labor market, fell by 3.3% in July. The rate of ultra-Orthodox jobseekers increased by 0.06%, the rate of "other" jobseekers increased by 0.3% and the rate of Arab jobseekers increased by no less than 2.9%.