The Israel Central Statistics Department stated that a noticeable decline in employment rates of some demographic groups in Israel during 2024.
According to the Israeli newspaper Calcalist about the report of the department, Arab men and religious Jews (Haredim) witnessed a decrease in their participation in the labor market, while the rates of employment of women continued to rise.
Haridim men’s employment declined
According to the Calcalist report, the employment rate among the Haridim men decreased from 55.5% in 2023 to 54% in 2024. It is likely that this decrease is due to an increase in the budget of religious institutes by approximately 50%, which encouraged the Haridim youth to stay inside the institutes instead of work.
The newspaper pointed out that the Israeli army issued recruitment orders for a number of working youth working as from July 2024, which may have an impact on their participation in the labor market.
It is noteworthy that most of this decline was registered during the first quarter of 2024, before the Supreme Court’s decision to stop the allocations of religious institutes for some students who lost their exemptions from military service.
Employment of women
Calcalist reported that the percentage of Haridim women stabilized at 88.1% in 2024 compared to 88% in 2023. In contrast, the percentage of employment of non -religious Jewish women witnessed a decrease from 83.2% to 82.4%.
These declines are attributed to the evacuation of the residents of the southern and northern regions as a result of the war, in addition to the widespread recruitment of the reserve forces.
A noticeable decline in the employment of Arab men
According to Calcalist, the employment rate of Arab men decreased from 77.3% in 2023 to 75.1% in 2024, after it recorded in 2023 a new peak after recovering from the decline during the Corona’s pandemic.
It is likely that this decrease is caused by the decline in the construction sector due to the war (in Gaza and southern Lebanon), as well as the concerns of Jewish societies about the employment of Arabs and Arab fears of work in Jewish environments.
However, the last quarter of 2024 witnessed a slight increase in the rate of Arab men’s employment to 76.2%, despite the military escalation in the north.
An increase in employing Arab women
Calcalist stated that the rate of employment of Arab women continued to rise to 46.1% in 2024 compared to 44.6% in 2023, which reflects a positive trend that started since 2020 when the percentage was at 35.7%.
The newspaper pointed out that this positive trend is due to the improvement of the levels of education among Arab women, as the work has become part of the prevailing pattern among young women. In 2015, Arab women’s employment rate was only 31.8%, which reflects remarkable progress during the last decade.
