The Central Bureau of Statistics reported today that unemployment in Israel in the second quarter of 2010 fell sharply to 6.2% from 7% in the preceding quarter. In the second quarter of 2010 the number of unemployed totaled 191,000 down from 218,000 in the first quarter of the year.
The sharpness of the fall was a major surprise and Israel now has very low unemployment compared with other OECD member countries. This is the lowest unemployment rate in Israel since 2008 and is approaching the low point of 5.9% in the summer of 2008.
The Central Bureau of Statistics reported that there were 3,075,000 people in Israel's workforce of whom 2,884,000 have jobs. The number of men in the workforce was 1,534,000 in the second quarter compared with 1,492,000 in the first quarter, while there were 1,350,000 women in the workforce in the second quarter compared with 1,336,000 in the first quarter.
Unemployment among men fell from 7.2% in the first quarter of 2010 to 6.5% in the second quarter and unemployment among women fell from 6.7% in the first quarter to 5.9% in the second quarter.
Unemployment peaked at 7.9% in May and June 2009 and has been steadily falling since. Unemployment stood at 7.1% in January 2010.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 31, 2010
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