Israel’s jobless rate dipped below three percent last month for the first since April 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to gain traction.
On the other hand, the population of the state has grown by 176,000 people — 1.9 percent — since the last Independence Day, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Israel’s population now stands at 9.506 million, including 7.021 million Jews (73.9 percent), 2.007 million Arabs (21.1 percent) and 478,000 other citizens (5 percent).
Another bright point: the CBS reports the unemployment rate in the first two weeks of April stood at 2.9 percent. The figure is a drop from that reported for the final two weeks of March, a rate of 3.7 percent.
That figure, incidentally, does not include the number of Israelis who are temporarily out of work due to COVID-19 (0.3 percent). Nor does it include statistics on those who have since returned to work (2.1 percent) following March 2020 workplace closures or termination of employment.
When those figures are added, the unemployment rate rises to 4.4 percent – which is still lower than the 5.3 percent consolidated total reported in March 2020.
