Arab men and Haredi women's employment

Yamit Naftali

One of the main factors identified with poverty is the low labor force participation rate or LFPR. One of the Israel's goals as a country is to encourage economic growth and to break the cycle of poverty, and therefore it is making great efforts to increase the LFPR among haredi men and Arab women. Currently, the LFPR for haredi men stands at only 54% and for Arab women 35%.

Employment rates of Jerusalem’s Arab women

YAMIT NAFTALI

Thirty-seven percent of Jerusalem’s population aged 15 and over are Arabs. This population is characterized by large households, with an average of 5.2 family members, and a high poverty rate, which reaches 82%, compared with the overall poverty rate in Jerusalem, which is 49%. The high rate of poverty among the Arab population is attributed mainly to the low participation in the labor force among Arab women, and to unskilled employment, which offers low salaries.

Employment-Population Ratios

Yair Assaf-Shapira
Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, en.jerusaleminstitute.org.il

In 2015 (the last year for which data are available), a total of 321,000 men and women were employed in Jerusalem. Although Jerusalem is Israel’s most populous city, the number of people employed in the city is smaller than the figure for Tel Aviv – Yafo, which has a total of 406,700 employed persons. Haifa has a total of 176,600, and for Israel as a whole the total is 3,653,800.

A city’s workforce is a source of economic power: workplaces pay relatively high municipal taxes, and persons employed in the city spend money and consume services such as culture, commerce, or even parking, thus in effect creating more employment opportunities. Construction of office buildings and other workplaces also generate revenues for the city through levies and fees. 

Might we conclude, therefore, that the economic power provided by persons employed in Jerusalem is less than that provided by those employed in Tel Aviv – Yafo and greater than in Haifa? Not necessarily, because the population of Jerusalem is twice that of Tel Aviv and three times that of Haifa. In other words, the economic power generated by workplaces in Jerusalem serves a much larger number of residents. To assess the economic power derived from places of employment in relation to population, we calculated the ratios between a city’s employed persons (who are not necessarily all residents) and the city’s population. 

The employment-population ratio in Jerusalem stood at 374 employed persons for every 1,000 residents of the city. This is significantly lower than the figures for Tel Aviv (947) and Haifa (635), which serve as centers of employment for large, densely populated metropolitan areas. A comparison with other major cities reveals that Jerusalem’s ratio is higher than that of Rishon LeZion (362) and Ashdod (333), but lower than that of Petah Tikva (522), Be’er Sheva (445), and Netanya (405).

Jerusalem’s low ratio results from relatively low rates of participation in the workforce among certain population groups, a relatively small number of workplaces in the city, and the difficulty of attracting people to work in the city. At the same time, it appears that since 2010 Jerusalem’s employment-population ratio has increased. In 1995, 2000, and 2005 it stood at 332, 329, and 331, respectively, then rose to 343 in 2010 and, as noted, to 374 in 2015. As we know, Jerusalem’s population is not declining in size, and the ratio is increasing because new workplaces are opening at a faster rate than the population is increasing. 

Translation: Merav Datan

Employment Integration and the Jerusalem Intifada

Marik Shtern
Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research   en.jerusaleminstitute.org.il

Since the end of the second intifada and construction of the separation fence, the economic and employment integration of Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents within West Jerusalem has been on the increase. The demographic growth of the city’s Palestinian population, on the one hand, and the economic crisis in East Jerusalem caused by the separation fence and consequent disconnection from the Palestinian economy, on the other, resulted in the integration of this population group into the Israeli labor market on a scale and scope unprecedented since 1967. Newly available data of the National Insurance Institute (social security), as processed by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research in relation to the composition and characteristics of persons employed in Jerusalem during 2006-2015, reveal that in 2015 the increase in number of Arab workers was halted, for the first time ever, and even reversed slightly.
As of 2015 employed residents of Jerusalem numbered 278,403. The relative proportion of employed Arabs within the city’s labor force grew steadily between 2006 and 2015, from 22% in 2006 to 28% in 2015. During this period the number of employed Arabs registered with the East Jerusalem branch of the National Insurance Institute rose from 45,730 to 74,204 – an increase of 62%. In 2015 this increase was halted and the total even declined by 110 employees.
Current data on recipients of unemployment benefits and income support can, to a certain extent, help explain why the city’s Arab labor force stopped increasing. According to National Insurance Institute data, the number of recipients of unemployment benefits among East Jerusalem Arabs rose steadily from 352 in 2008 to 1,501 in 2015 – an increase of 426% in seven years. The main increase took place during 2013-2015. In addition, the number of income support recipients from East Jerusalem also jumped, nearly doubling between 2011 and 2015, from 3,853 to 5,793 – about 700 more than the number of Jewish income support recipients in the city for the same year. These figures presumably reflect the large number of Arab workers who were excluded from the employment cycle in recent years. Their exclusion can probably be explained in terms of the economic crisis that befell Jerusalem’s private employment sector following the events of the Jerusalem intifada, as well as instances of dismissal or refusal to employ Arab workers in West Jerusalem during this period. At the same time, the increase in recipients of unemployment benefits and income support could also indicate an increase in awareness and capability within this population group when it comes to implementing their social rights. In other words, their economic integration and what has recently been termed their “Israelization” actually enable Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to claim their social rights under conditions of economic crisis or dismissal from work, which in turn result from an intensification of the national conflict in the city.

Translation: Merav Datan

The Work Force

Alon Kupererd
Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research   en.jerusaleminstitute.org.il

The term “work force” describes the persons in the population, aged 15 and over, who are employed or unemployed and seeking employment. At the end of 2014, 69% of Israeli Jews aged 15 and over participated in the work force, meaning they were employed or seeking employment, in comparison to 47% among the Arab population. The rate of unemployed persons among Jews in Israel was 6% of the work force, and 8% among Arabs. 
In Jerusalem the rate of participation of Jews in the work force was 59% - lower than the average for Israel. Similarly among Arabs, the rate of participation in the work force in Jerusalem was comparatively low, at 40%.
When analyzing the data by gender we see that among Jewish men the rate of participation in the work force in Israel was 72%, while in Jerusalem the rate was only 57%.  
Among Arabs, the rate of participation of men in the work force in Israel was 66%, a bit lower than the rate in Jerusalem which was 68%.
The rate of unemployed persons is similar for the Jewish and Arab sectors and for the Israeli average and Jerusalem average, standing at 7%. 
In Israel, 66% of Jewish women participated in the work force in 2014, in comparison to 61% of the Jewish women in Jerusalem. 6% of the Jewish women in the work force in Israel were unemployed, while in Jerusalem the percentage of unemployed women was 8%.
The rate of participation of Arab women in the work force in Israel at large, at 28%, was much lower than that of Jewish women. In Jerusalem the rate of participation of Arab women in the work force was 13%, which is lower by over half in comparison to the Israeli average.
90% of Arab women in the work force in Israel were employed, meaning that among Arab women in Israel, there was an unemployment rate of 10%. In Jerusalem 85% of Arab women in the work force were employed, equaling an unemployment rate of 15% among the work force.
This data regarding participation of Arab women in the work force in Jerusalem is especially interesting due to the fact that it shows us that even when an Arab woman decides she would like to be employed, her chances of finding a job are lower than the chances of an Arab woman in Israel. 
In regards to impact of the level of education on work force participation, it is noticeable that among Arab women in Jerusalem, the rate of participation in the work force was higher among women with a higher level of education. 8% of women with secondary school education participated in the work force. 2% of all Arab women living in Jerusalem have attained a Master's degree - 66% of them are in the work force.
This is true also considering Arab women in Israel at large – 28% of women with secondary school education participated in the work force, compared with 88% of women with Master’s degrees.
This effect of education on the motivation to participate in the work force also exists to some extent among women in the Jewish sector, but is much more significant among Arab women. 

Sources: Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem 2016 

Jerusalem@Work

Inbal Doron

The city of Jerusalem, one of the major focal points of employment in Israel, serves as an economic nerve center for more than 1,200,000 individuals. The issue of employment in the city is at the heart of the discourse about the future of Jerusalem in general and about its potential to attract a creative populace in particular. 

In 2012 a total of 294,000 individuals were employed in Jerusalem, constituting 9% of the total in Israel. Among the total number of employees in Jerusalem, about 75% were residents of the city, 11% were residents of Judea and Samaria, and 6% were residents of the Jerusalem District. Thus, a total of 92% of employees in Jerusalem were residents of the city and its environs. Approximately 2,400 of those employed in Jerusalem were residents of Tel Aviv, constituting about 1% of the total. 

The data indicate that most Jerusalem residents (87%) prefer to work within the city, while 13% work outside the city, with women tending to work closer to home than men. Only 8% of the employed women who are residents of Jerusalem work outside the city, compared with 17% of men. More employees residing in Tel Aviv and Haifa choose to work outside their city than do employed residents of Jerusalem. In 2012 the percentage of Tel Aviv residents working outside the city was 37% (for women the figure was 30%), and in Haifa the percentage of residents working outside the city was 29% (for women the figure was 21%).

Men and women also differ in terms of areas of employment. Among women, who constituted 47% of all employees in Jerusalem during 2012, the main areas of employment were the following: education (24%), health, welfare, and nursing (including homecare) services (20%), and public administration (12%). In contrast, among Jerusalem’s employed men the main occupations were in the areas of trade (15%), business services (15%), and education (11%). In 2012 a total of 16,000 individuals were employed in the high-tech industry in Jerusalem, constituting 6% of all employees in the city as well as 6% of all high-tech employees in Israel. Of these, 64% were men.

It is interesting to compare the Jewish and Arab sectors in terms of employment rates in Jerusalem across various areas of employment for men and women. Among women in both sectors, the data indicate that women primarily work in similar areas: education and health, welfare, and nursing (including homecare) services. In contrast, for Jewish men the main areas of employment are business services, public administration, and education, whereas in the Arab sector men are primarily employed in the areas of trade, construction, hospitality and food services, transportation, and communications.

The most significant difference between the sectors in terms of employment in Jerusalem is the rate of participation in the workforce. Within the dominant age groups of employees (25-54), Arab men have a higher rate of participation in the workforce than Jewish men (88% compared with 71%). Among women the situation is reversed, with a particularly low rate of workforce participation among Arab women – only 20% in 2012 – compared with 82% among Jewish women. The rate of workforce participation of the Jewish sector in Jerusalem is unusual in that the women’s rate of participation is higher than that of the men (82% compared with 71%), primarily because of low workforce participation among ultra-orthodox men.

Central Bureau of Statistics- Labour Force Survey