Khaberni - According to "Calcalist" newspaper, the Israeli job market is moving towards a phase described by the newspaper as "unprecedented in its fragility," with a sharp rise in the number of vacant jobs approaching a record level, while there continues to be a broad absence of workforce due to ongoing reservist call-ups since the outbreak of the war.
Record jump in vacant jobs under reservist pressure
"Calcalist" data indicates that the number of job vacancies jumped in October to 149.8 thousand compared to 147.3 thousand in September, which the newspaper considered a "dangerous approach to the level of 151.6 thousand jobs recorded in June 2022 upon emerging from the coronavirus pandemic."
"Calcalist" states that what is happening now "does not resemble the post-corona crisis," where the explanation at that time was related to a mismatch between the skills of the workers and the jobs.
However, today, the newspaper confirms that the main reason is "the extensive scale of the reserve (military call-ups), which creates huge gaps in the workforce," causing vacant jobs to rise at a pace described by the newspaper as "a direct result of the human bleeding at work sites."
Sharp slowdown in hiring in Israel
Despite the war, the data shows an increase of about 4.6% in the number of workers compared to the pre-war period (September 2023), but "Calcalist" notes that this increase is "very modest" compared to the growth, which reached 11% between 2021 and 2023, indicating a deep slowdown in the economy's ability to generate real jobs.
The rise in job vacancies has affected almost all sectors, but the newspaper recalls that "the sharpest increases were recorded in hospitality, food services, and trade, while the construction sector recorded the highest increase ever," which it regards as an additional indicator of severe turmoil in sectors most reliant on daily labor.
Low unemployment on paper in Israel
The employment rate has dropped from 60.8% to 60.2% within one month, a trend that "Calcalist" says "has been continuing since the beginning of the war, where the economy fails to surpass the 61% barrier," describing it as "a clear sign of weak actual economic activity despite the low unemployment numbers."
Regarding unemployment, "Calcalist" reveals that the official rate slightly increased from 3% (140.1 thousand people) to 3.2% (145.7 thousand), but the newspaper insists that these figures "do not reflect reality," pointing out that unemployment at these levels "is frictional unemployment that masks a broad absence from work due to reserve service and forced leaves."
The extended unemployment rate -which includes the unemployed, the discouraged, and those on unpaid leave- has dropped from 4.3% (197.9 thousand) to 4.2% (193.2 thousand), but "Calcalist" described it as a "nominal decline that does not reflect the magnitude of the imbalance in the job market structure."
The newspaper concludes its evaluation with a sharp statement, "The current numbers do not indicate a healthy job market but rather a market suffering from a structural labor shortage directly linked to the pressure of the war and reservist call-ups, threatening to extend the crisis for years."
