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 

Women's Education and the Labor Force

Caroline Kahlenberg

A recently publicized Science and Technology Ministry study revealed that in almost half of Israel's universities, women made up only 20% of the faculty. While this severe under-representation of women is not new, it occurs today even at a time when women in Israel are more highly educated on average than men. The gap between women's educational achievements and their situation in the university labor market invites us to explore the relationship between gender, education, and the workforce more broadly. 

Over the past decades, women in Israel have been acquiring higher education at an increasing rate. In 1969-1970, women made up 46.9% of all first-degree students at institutions of higher education, reaching 54.1% in 1989-90 and 56.6% in 2012-13. In 1980 only 32% of Israel's doctoral students were women, but by 2012-13 this figure rose to 52.1%. 

Yet despite the steep increase in women's education, the situation in the labor market still contains major gaps. As the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's 2014 Gender Index shows, contrary to popular opinion, women's educational achievements do not alone necessarily translate into better pay, job positions, or status in the labor market. In 2012, the average monthly (gross) salary in Israel for men (NIS 11,400) was 50% higher than the average for women (NIS 7,600). While part of this can be attributed to the fact that women work fewer hours than men, the gap also exists in hourly pay: In 2012, the average hourly wage in Israel for men (55 NIS) was 17% higher than it was for women (47 NIS). 

Jerusalem's labor force contains a slightly different story. Because of the special status of its workforce (with especially low participation of Jewish men and Arab women), the gender gap in workforce characteristics is not as stark. In 2012, the average hourly wage for men in Jerusalem (47 NIS) was comparable to that for women (46 NIS), and the gap between men and women's monthly salary was only 25% (as compared to 46% in Tel Aviv, and 61% in Haifa). 

If we look at a different aspect of Jerusalem's labor market—at overall labor force participation among the entire 24-54 year-old population, rather than at characteristics within the workforce—we can see a major gap between Jerusalem men's and women's participation according to educational attainment. As the graph displays, even when comparing men and women who have completed the same level of education, labor force participation rates are consistently higher among men. However, as women's educational attainment increases, so does their participation in the labor force, which narrows the gap between men and women's participation. Out of those who last attended primary and intermediate school, only 10% of women and 81% of men participate in the labor force. Among those with secondary school education, 43% of women and 89% of men participate in the workforce. Meanwhile, 71% of women and 91% of men with post-secondary school education, and 80% of women and 90% of men who last attended academic institutions, participate in the labor force.